Minneapolis Institute of Art

La Fin du monde, filmée par L'Ange N.-D. (The End of the World, Filmed by the Angel of Notre Dame)

Fernand Léger; Author: Blaise Cendrars (Frédéric Louis Sauser); Publisher: Éditions de la Sirène, Paris

Date

1919

Medium

Color pochoir (gouache) illustrations, line block prints of ink drawings, and letterpress, bound volume

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

La Fin du monde was originally developed as a screenplay by the modernist poet and author Blaise Cendrars, but it was published as a novel when funding for the film project fell through. Conceived as a satire, Cendrars’s story features God in the guise of an American industrialist, who out of sheer boredom orchestrates an apocalyptic war on earth for the amusement of the god Mars. Fernand Léger, collaborating with his friend Cendrars, contributed a series of witty Cubist-inspired illustrations and other designs for the project. His illustrations were hand colored in gouache with brush and stencils. Léger also designed the book’s experimental typography, which he skillfully merged with his illustrations to reflect the chaotic vigor of modern life. Like Cendrars, Léger was captivated by the creative possibilities of filmmaking and set the tempo and progression of the book’s illustrations to simulate the fast-paced rhythm and dynamic nature of a motion picture. France, Europe

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