Born in Paris in 1881, Albert Léon Gleizes began his career working in is father’s fabric design factory, later claiming that the precision of design formed the basis of his artistic training.

The process of design had enabled him to achieve his goal of ’a sublime precision’ and a capacity to individualize abstractions in order to create an autonomous structure. His days spent amongst the factory workers may also have contributed to his lifelong preoccupation with social themes and his ultimate political belief in the creation of a democratic socialism.

He exhibited for the first time at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, in 1902, and participated in the Salon d'Automne in 1903 and 1904. In colour and subject matter, these early works show the influence of the Impressionists and, in particular, the work of Pissarro.