Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier (born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret) was one of the most influential architects and urban planners of the twentieth century, and a seminal figure in the modern movement as a painter, designer, and writer. A naturalized French citizen of Swiss origins, as of 1917 Le Corbusier lived and worked primarily in Paris, but his practice was international in scope. The architect’s involvement in the development and history of Cubism was twofold: as a practitioner and theorist of Purism and as an art advisor and architect to the Swiss banker and collector Raoul La Roche. Le Corbusier’s personal art collection included examples of Cubist works by Georges Braque and Picasso.

Born to a watchcase designer and music teacher, Le Corbusier was educated at the local Ecole d’Art in the Arts and Crafts tradition under the direction of Charles L’Eplattenier. Instrumental in his education were trips through central and southern Europe and apprenticeships at the architectural studios of Auguste and Gustave Perret (Paris, 1908–9) and Peter Behrens (Berlin, 1910–11). The latter exposed him to innovative building methods of reinforced concrete and rationalist aesthetics.

In 1917 Le Corbusier (born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret) moved permanently to Paris and in November of that year met the painter Amédée Ozenfant, who became his close collaborator and conduit to the avant-garde artistic and literary circles of the French capital. Under Ozenfant’s tutelage Le Corbusier took up painting. In December 1918 they jointly exhibited canvases that shared the rational and clear pictorial language of Purism at Galerie Thomas in Paris and published the booklet manifesto Aprés le Cubisme (After Cubism). The latter outlined the doctrine of Purism (the term coined by Ozenfant in 1916) by identifying it as the successor to Cubism. Other artists who associated themselves with Purism were Fernand Léger and Juan Gris. In 1919, together with the Dada poet and essayist Paul Dermée, Le Corbusier and Ozenfant established the international review L’Esprit Nouveau (1920–25) and used it as a platform to promote Purist aesthetics. Le Corbusier, responsible for the financial and marketing aspects of the journal, was also a regular and frequent contributor. His texts appeared under various pseudonyms, including “Le Corbusier,” which as of 1928 the architect assumed as his professional name.

Although immersed in painting and writing, Le Corbusier also pursued architecture during the Purist period of the 1920s. He designed a series of private homes mainly in and around Paris that exemplified his preoccupation with clean geometric forms and immersion in industrial rationalism, modern building techniques and materials, and the machine aesthetic. Among his clients were the artists Ozenfant, Jacques Lipchitz, and Oscar Miestchaninoff, as well as collectors Michael and Sarah Stein and La Roche. The public presentation of his radical Purist architectural design in form of Pavilion L’Esprit Nouveau, took place in 1925 at the Exposition International des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels in Paris. This model residence featured Purist art by Gris, Léger, Lipchitz, Ozenfant, and Le Corbusier himself.

Le Corbusier had met La Roche in 1918 through the Parisian Swiss circles and involved him in his undertakings. La Roche acquired paintings and works on paper by Le Corbusier and Ozenfant, eventually purchasing works by other artists associated with Purism, and agreed to be a financial backer of L’Esprit Nouveau. In the early 1920s, La Roche relied on Le Corbusier and Ozenfant as his art advisors to form an extensive collection of Cubist art. Working in tandem, Le Corbusier and Ozenfant purchased works by Braque and Picasso on behalf of La Roche at the sequestration sales of Wilhelm Uhde’s and Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler’s art inventories, held at Hôtel Drouot in Paris in the early 1920s. In May 1923, in gratitude for his services, La Roche presented Le Corbusier with a painting by Braque, Clarinet and Bottle of Rum on a Mantelpiece (1911; Tate Modern, London), which the architect acquired at the Kahnweiler sale held on May 7–8, 1923 (lot 137). The following year, La Roche contracted Le Corbusier to design a Paris residence that would accommodate his collection. Completed in 1925, the house, known as Villa La Roche-Jeanneret, featured an art gallery.

While acting as agents for La Roche, Ozenfant and Le Corbusier made purchases at the Kahnweiler sales that did not enter La Roche’s collection. For example, Le Corbusier owned Picasso’s Still Life with Bottle of Rum (1911; The Metropolitan Museum of Art), which Ozenfant bid on during the Kahnweiler sale held on November 17–18, 1921 (lot 189). Le Corbusier and Ozenfant also purchased an edition of Picasso’s print Eau de Vie de Marc, 1912, as an investment in connection with L’Esprit Nouveau (for the Société de L’Esprit Nouveau company that financed the journal). In addition to works by Picasso and Braque, Le Corbusier’s personal collection included works by his artist friend Léger, Composition avec profil (Couteau et figure) (1926; Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal).

In his will the architect bequeathed his art collection to the Le Corbusier Foundation, housed in Villa La Roche-Jeanneret. The Foundation sold some of the works, including the Cubist paintings by Braque and Picasso, at auctions held in 1969 and 1970 at Palais Galliera in Paris.