{
"data": {
"id": 150359,
"accession_number": "1981.16",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "The Aviator, 1920. Fernand L\u00e9ger (French, 1881\u20131955). Oil on canvas; framed: 80.1 x 106.7 x 4.6 cm (31 9/16 x 42 x 1 13/16 in.); unframed: 65 x 92 cm (25 9/16 x 36 1/4 in.); former: 90.5 x 117.2 x 7 cm (35 5/8 x 46 1/8 x 2 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 1981.16. \u00a9 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris",
"current_location": "223 20th Century Avant-Garde",
"title": "The Aviator",
"creation_date": "1920",
"creation_date_earliest": 1920,
"creation_date_latest": 1920,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"France, 20th century"
],
"technique": "oil on canvas",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Modern European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Framed: 80.1 x 106.7 x 4.6 cm (31 9/16 x 42 x 1 13/16 in.); Unframed: 65 x 92 cm (25 9/16 x 36 1/4 in.); Former: 90.5 x 117.2 x 7 cm (35 5/8 x 46 1/8 x 2 3/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 0.801,
"height_inch": 31,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5625,
"width": 1.067,
"width_inch": 42,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"depth": 0.046,
"depth_inch": 1,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.8125
},
"unframed": {
"height": 0.65,
"height_inch": 25,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5625,
"width": 0.92,
"width_inch": 36,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.25
},
"former": {
"height": 0.905,
"height_inch": 35,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.625,
"width": 1.172,
"width_inch": 46,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.125,
"depth": 0.07,
"depth_inch": 2,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.75
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": "\u00a9 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris",
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Signed lower right: \"F LEGER / 20\"; inscribed on back: \"L'AVIATEUR / DEFINITIF / F. LEGER 20\"\r\n",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 304599,
"title": "The Year in Review for 1981",
"description": "The Year in Review for 1981. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).",
"opening_date": "1982-02-17T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 227345,
"title": "Fernand L\u00e9ger Retrospective",
"description": "Fernand L\u00e9ger Retrospective. Helly Nahmad Gallery, New York, NY (organizer) (February 22-May 28, 2005).",
"opening_date": "2005-02-22T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 182153,
"title": "Monet to Dal\u00ed: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Monet to Dal\u00ed: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008).",
"opening_date": "2006-05-27T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Fernand L\u00e9ger Retrospective. Helly Nahmad Gallery, New York, NY (February 22-May 28, 2005).",
"opening_date": "2005-02-22T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(D. H. Kahnweiler, Paris, France)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(Alfred Flechtheim, Berlin,Germany)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": null,
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "Kofler-Herni Coll.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": null,
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "(Galerie Beyeler, Basel Switzerland)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": null,
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "(Perls Galleries, New York, NY, 1981, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1981",
"sortorder": 5
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1981-",
"sortorder": 6
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Trained as an architect to admire pure, geometric forms, L\u00e9ger wrote that while fighting on the Argonne Front during World War I he was \"stunned by the sight of the breech of a 75 millimeter in the sunlight. It was the magic of light on the white metal.\"",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "During World War I, Fernand L\u00e9ger served in the Corps of Engineers until he sustained injuries from a mustard gas attack at the Battle of Verdun in 1916. This painting celebrates the courage of aviators and the technology of flight; the spinning propeller is suggested by the arching curves fragmented into sections of purple, white, black, green, and yellow. The circular motif is repeated as a human head, the insignia of the French air force (that resembles a bullseye), and tubular mechanical elements throughout the composition.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60474736"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, \u201cMajor Leger Painting Acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art,\u201d March 31, 1981, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://archive.org/details/cmapr2869"
},
{
"citation": "Lee, Sherman E. \u201cThe Year in Review for 1981.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 69, no. 2 (1982): 39\u201382.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 42",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159758"
},
{
"citation": "Henning, Edward B. \u201cThe Aviator: A Major Painting by Fernand L\u00e9ger.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 69, no. 3 (1982): 87\u201393.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: cover, P. 92, fig. 12; Mentioned: P. 87-93",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159762"
},
{
"citation": "Blass, Brigit. Aviatik und Avantgarde: Fliegen und Schweben. Ko\u0308ln, Germany: Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Presse & Information, 1988.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 27",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Fernand L\u00e9ger Retrospective. New York, New York: Helly Nahmad Gallery, 2005.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and mentioned: p. 38-39, no. 5",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Sims, Lowery S. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 17, fig. 1",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Robinson, William H. \"Beyond Cubism.\" Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 48, no. 10 (December 2008): 4-6.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 6",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2008-10/page/4/mode/2up"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1981.16",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": "Michael J. Horvitz Family Gallery",
"athena_id": 150359,
"creators": [
{
"id": 2121,
"description": "Fernand L\u00e9ger (French, 1881\u20131955)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1881",
"death_year": "1955",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1981-03-09T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1920,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1920",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": true,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": true,
"updated_at": "2026-08-03 14:20:24.267000"
}
}