The artwork titled “The Mechanic” was created by Fernand Léger in the year 1920. This piece is executed in oil on canvas and is associated with the Cubism movement. Categorized under the genre of portraiture, the artwork is housed at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) in Montreal, Canada.
The artwork portrays a robust, stylized figure of a man in profile, bearing elements that exemplify the Cubist style. The mechanical and industrial motifs are evident through the geometric shapes and the fragmented depiction of the human form. The use of bold lines and contrasting colors highlights the mechanical theme, cascading across the canvas to create a sense of both solidity and abstraction. The figure, with musculature reminiscent of machinery, holds a cigarette and an enigmatic object, with surrounding elements that hint at industrialization and mechanization. The interplay of light and shadow, along with the simplified forms, imbues the artwork with a sense of rhythmic complexity characteristic of Léger’s oeuvre.
