Double page plate (folios 17 verso and 18) from La Fin du monde filmée par l'ange de N.-D. (The End of the World Filmed by the Angel of Notre Dame)

The Double page plate (folios 17 verso and 18) from La Fin du monde filmée par l'ange de N.-D. (The End of the World Filmed by the Angel of Notre Dame) by Fernand Léger is a significant component of this French illustrated book, published in 1919. The work utilizes the complex printmaking techniques of line block and pochoir. The line block provides the structural, graphic outline, while the pochoir method—a specialized, hand-applied stencil technique—delivers the intense, flat areas of color that define the composition. This combination allowed Léger to translate his machine-age Cubist style into a format suitable for mass reproduction while maintaining artistic intensity.

Created immediately following the conclusion of World War I, this volume showcases the artist's engagement with modernity, industry, and the nascent influence of cinema. Léger was deeply fascinated by the visual dynamism of gears, pistons, and mechanized forms, which he integrated into human figures and urban settings. The entire book features twenty-two pochoirs, six of which incorporate the precision of the line block, characteristic of the modernist shift towards bold geometry and unmodulated color fields. This specific medium classification, Illustrated Book, highlights the importance of prints and graphic design in spreading the tenets of modern art beyond the exclusive realm of painting.

This piece, residing in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), represents Léger’s commitment to functional, accessible art forms prevalent in the 1919 French artistic scene. The narrative framework of the book, focusing on catastrophic imagery in La Fin du monde filmée par l'ange de N.-D., provided Léger with a dramatic opportunity to explore abstraction through recognizable symbols of technology and destruction. Researchers often study these prints as prime examples of early twentieth-century printmaking, noting how works such as this, when they eventually enter the public domain, continue to influence graphic artists globally.