About the artwork
Le Remorqueur - 1921
A celebration of modern industrial labor
Le Remorqueur ('The Tugboat') is a 1921 painting by French Cubist Fernand Léger, part of his major 'City' cycle that celebrated modern industrial and urban life.
Created in the aftermath of World War I, when Léger had served at the front, the painting reflects his embrace of the modern machine age and the dignity of industrial labor.
The composition layers bold, machine-like forms in Léger's signature tubular style, depicting the work of tugboats on the Seine in his native Normandy.
The work exemplifies what critic Louis Vauxcelles first called 'Tubism' — Léger's distinctive idiom of cylinders and cones that influenced Art Deco and graphic design.
- Oil on canvas
- 1921
- Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris