Leger was leading a hard life, working both as a draftsman and as a photo retoucher . He went to Corsica during this period to restore his ill health, and his earliest works, which date back to 1905, reflect the colorful, Fauvist-like atmosphere of Matisse in "Corsican Village: Sunset" and "Self-Portrait." When he returned to Paris in 1908, he finally found a compatible artistic climate in the Danzig Arcade in La Ruche, which was home to an artistic commune of artists that included Archipenko and later Marc Chagall, Chaim Soutine and Robert Delaunay, who became Leger's good friend. Also living in that area were writers Max Jacob, the poet Apollinaire and Blasie Cendrars.
In 1909 , Leger began to experiment with Cubism and he destroyed almost all his old paintings . He devolved enough resources to submit his work to the Salon des Independants for the first time that same year, submitting a reclining figure of a woman, two still lifes and two sketches. He also began working on a painting that would take almost two years to complete, "Nudes in a Landscape," which was later called "Nudes in the Forest."
In 1911, Leger made two contributions to the Salon d'Automne, including "Study for Three Portraits," which was exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show in the U.S.A. The Cubist's room at the Salon was hailed by Apollinaire as the "greatest achievement in French art," but he warned that Leger had yet to find his style. In May of 1913, he delivered a lecture at the Academie Wassilev on "The Origins of Painting and its Representational Value."
With the onset of World War I, Leger was drafted back into service by the Engineers, and was gassed when serving as a stretcher barer at Verdun. He convalesced at the hospital at Villepinte, and began to resume his artwork.
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