This video is part of La Fin du monde: A Modernist Book, a research project from the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art.
Join Rachel Mustalish, Sherman Fairchild Conservator in Charge of Paper Conservation at The Met, for a close examination of a unique volume containing the 1919 printed book and original maquette for La Fin du monde filmée par l’Ange N.-D., a collaboration between the novelist and poet Blaise Cendrars and the artist Fernand Léger. Housed in a unique leather binding created in 1975, Leger’s original illustrations and the final printed product offer a glimpse into the artist’s bold choices of composition and color as well as the creative process shared between writer and artist.
Blaise Cendrars (author) and Fernand Léger (artist). La Fin du monde filmée par l’Ange N.-D., 1919. Illustrated book with twenty-two pochoirs published by Éditions de la Sirène, Paris, and eleven compositions in gouache and pencil, in embossed leather binding, 13 3/8 × 11 1/8 × 1 5/8 in. (34 × 28.3 × 4.1 cm). Collection of the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Library, Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art (PN1997 .F465 1919 LALRC Quarto)
