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ABOUT ROUSES POINT: The Northern Gateway:
Rouses Point, located along a glorious mile of the
Adirondack Coast, is a friendly, lakefront village with an extraordinarily rich
history. From lovely classical architecture to a charming, well-preserved
downtown, it is ideally situated along the western shores of Lake
Champlain. The Village provides natural gateways to Canada, Vermont and New
York State with a convenient port of entry to and from Canada and an impressive
bridge spanning Lake Champlain.
Historical attractions and cultural events
flourish. Camping, golfing, cycling, fishing and birding abound. You'll
discover the bootlegger's "Rum Trail," a rich railroad heritage,
a 19th century fort as well as old-fashioned BBQs, parades and one-of-a-kind
specialty shops. Rouses Point is a friendly and relaxed environment in
which to live, work and play. To
learn more about Rouses Point including local services and village directory visit click here.
HISTORICAL
NOTE (FERNAND LEGER IN ROUSES POINT):
LEGER IN ROUSES POINT: A CHRONOLOGY -- In March 1943, Cubist painter Fernand
Leger discovers Rouses Point when his train is delayed for several hours on a
journey to Montreal. "The Champlain Valley, with its fresh green orchards and
French-speaking population, bore a resemblance to Normandy which captivated
Leger." (1) He returns July 1 of that year and spends the summer at an old
farm. Abandoned farm machinery overgrown with vegetation inspire many new
compositions for paintings.
In July 1944,
Leger begins his summer again in Rouses Point spending time with his friend
Siegfried Giedion who was writing his book, Mechanization
Takes Command. In August Leger works on The
Girl with the Prefabricated Heart, a sequence for Hans Richter's film
Dreams that Money Can Buy.
"By 1944 Leger had
completed the Divers series, wherein figures are strewn through the picture
space with top and bottom, hands and feet virtually interchangeable."(2) "That
summer too (1944), Leger was continuing to develop the spectrum of circus
personalities that would fill the enormous canvases of his last decade, such as
La Grande Parade (1954)."(3)
"Among the
sketches I saw at Rouses Point were some of a subject Leger had broached a
couple of years earlier, jauntily attired cyclists and their machines-partly
inspired, he said, by the American taste for outdoor sports and eye-catching
clothes."(3), as seen in Leger's La Grande Julie (1945).
"A special
atmosphere emanates from the group of works, frequently called the American
Landscape series, created during Leger's summers in Rouses Point. All of
Leger's American oeuvre displays a pictorial area densely covered with
compositional elements. The group of Rouses Point landscapes is no exception.
In Tree in Ladder (1943) man made objects are intertwined with and devoured by
the overgrown vegetation."(5)
Leger spends his
last summer in Rouses Point in 1945 before returning to France at the end of
WWII. In 2007, Norte Maar presented a ballet inspired by Leger at it's annual FETE DE DANSE: Summer Dance Concert.
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(1) Kotik, Charlotta. "Leger and America." In Fernand Leger. New York: Abbeville Press, 1983, p 56.
(2) James, Martin. "Leger at Rouses Point, 1944: A Memoir," The Burlington
Magazine, vol. 130, no.1021 (April 1988), p 281.
(3) ibid
(4) ibid
(5) ibid p 57.
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