French painter Fernand Léger trained as an architect before attending the School of Decorative Arts, Paris. In his early works he experimented with cubism. Léger served with the French Army during World War I and his sketches from this time marked the beginning of his 'mechanical' period. During the 1930s he produced many monumental figurative compositions. Léger received the Grand Prize at the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1955. The Musée Fernand Léger was opened in Biot, France in 1960.