Parade Sauvage thumbnail 1
Parade Sauvage thumbnail 2
Not currently on display at the V&A

Parade Sauvage

Furnishing Fabric
1956 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This furnishing fabric, designed by Fernand Léger, was printed a year after the artist's death in 1955.The design re-works elements of Léger's famous painting The Great Parade, executed in 1954 (New York: Guggenheim) and incorporates motifs from Les Trapézistes, 1954 (Canberra: National Gallery of Australia), and a series of lithographs Léger produced entitled Le Cirque. Léger continues his evident fascination with the circus in the design for this fabric: both the vigorous vitality and the spontanaeity of the spectacle come through strongly. Léger's treatment of this subject frequently incorporates an element of the sinister, which can be detected here through the contorted, almost grotesque faces of the performers and the French phrase 'Cette Parade Sauvage', meaning 'this wild/barbaric parade' which appears throughout.

It was this combination of activity and chaos that appealed to Léger, who observed in 1950:

'A circus is a circulation of great masses of people, animals and objects.... Go to the circus. You leave behind your rectangles, your geometric windows, and you go to the country of circles in action.'


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • Parade Sauvage (assigned by artist)
  • Modern Masters (series title)
Materials and techniques
Screen-printed cotton
Brief description
Furnishing fabric 'Parade Sauvage' of screen-printed cotton, designed by Fernand Léger for Fuller Fabrics, New York, 1956
Physical description
Furnishing fabric of screen-printed cotton.
Dimensions
  • Length: 918mm (max length)
  • Width: 1025mm (max width)
Styles
Credit line
Given by Fuller Fabrics
Subjects depicted
Summary
This furnishing fabric, designed by Fernand Léger, was printed a year after the artist's death in 1955.The design re-works elements of Léger's famous painting The Great Parade, executed in 1954 (New York: Guggenheim) and incorporates motifs from Les Trapézistes, 1954 (Canberra: National Gallery of Australia), and a series of lithographs Léger produced entitled Le Cirque. Léger continues his evident fascination with the circus in the design for this fabric: both the vigorous vitality and the spontanaeity of the spectacle come through strongly. Léger's treatment of this subject frequently incorporates an element of the sinister, which can be detected here through the contorted, almost grotesque faces of the performers and the French phrase 'Cette Parade Sauvage', meaning 'this wild/barbaric parade' which appears throughout.

It was this combination of activity and chaos that appealed to Léger, who observed in 1950:

'A circus is a circulation of great masses of people, animals and objects.... Go to the circus. You leave behind your rectangles, your geometric windows, and you go to the country of circles in action.'
Collection
Accession number
CIRC.439-1956

About this object record

Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.

Suggest feedback

Record createdMarch 8, 2007
Record URL
Download as: JSON