Kubism
Léger's experiences in World War I had a significant effect on his work. Mobilized in August
1914 for service in the French Army, he spent two years at the front in Argonne. He produced
many sketches of artillery pieces, airplanes, and fellow soldiers while in the trenches, and
painted Soldier with a Pipe (1916) while on furlough. In September 1916 he almost died after
a mustard gas attack by the German troops at Verdun. During a period of convalescence in
Villepinte he painted The Card Players (1917), a canvas whose robot-like, monstrous figures
reflect the ambivalence of his experience of war. As he explained:
...I was stunned by the sight of the breech of a 75 millimeter in the sunlight. It was the magic
of light on the white metal. That's all it took for me to forget the abstract art of 1912-1913.
The crudeness, variety, humor, and downright perfection of certain men around me, their
annaabi.ee 
