Mon Foyer, 1940-1944

Nadia Léger’s 'Mon Foyer' is a work on paper dated circa 1940–1944, typically executed in graphite and associated with her wartime production in occupied France. Rather than a large, finished painting, Mon foyer belongs to a group of intimate, drawn works in which Léger focuses on domestic and psychological themes. The title—“my home” or “my hearth”—is significant: during this period, she was living under occupation in Paris, separated from her husband, Fernand Léger, and working in difficult and often clandestine conditions.

Despite the danger, Léger continued to draw and paint in her studio, producing works that often carry coded emotional and political meanings under conditions of surveillance, scarcity, and political risk. Mon foyer is often read less as a literal interior scene than as a symbolic reflection on “home” during wartime. The “foyer” becomes something fragile and psychological rather than stable or domestic, reflecting the tension between private life and historical wartime rupture.