Fernand Léger's "The Woman in Blue" - 1912

“The modern conception of art is not simply a passing abstraction, valid only for a few initiates;

it is the total expression of a new generation whose needs it shares and whose aspirations it answers.”

– Fernand Léger ‘The Origins of Painting and its Representational Value’, Paris, 1913

Fernand Léger (FR, 1881-1955), La Femme en Bleu (Woman in Blue) - 1912,

oil on canvas, 76 x 51 1/8 inches, 193 x 129.9 cm, Artmuseum, Basel.

Lot 16, "Etude Pour 'La Femme en Bleu," by Fernand Léger, oil on canvas, 51 by 38 inches, 1912-13

The Sotheby's catalogue of April 2008 describes "Etude Pour "La Femme en Bleu" as "heroic," adding that "this spectacular image is one of the movement’s most enduring achievements, and a milestone on the path to abstraction."

The first version of this work is the same size and was kept by the artist in his private collection until his death when it was given to the Musée National Fernand Léger in Biot. The second version, which was the largest, was included in the annual Salon in Paris and in the Armory Show in New York in 1913 and eventually wound up in the Basel Kunstmuseum.
(Source: the city review)