Like Marcel Duchamp, he was inspired by the machines that he saw at the fourth exhibition of aerial locomotion, which took place in Paris just before the First World War.
[2] In December 1919, Léger wrote to his dealer, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler: “I have used a lot, these two years, of mechanical elements in my paintings.
The composition is both vertical and horizontal and no hierarchy is shown: it is a fragmented and colorful vision of the world which seeks to symbolize modernity and technical progress.
[5] As is often the case in the work of Léger, in this painting industrial landscapes are translated into cubic, cylindrical or tubular shapes in bright colors, agreeing with the principles of futurism without sharing its extravagance.
[6][7] In this painting, Léger responds to the monotony of blue-collar work with an attempt to sublimate urban and industrial reality.