LE CORBUSIER (1887-1965) Les huit
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, UK
LE CORBUSIER (1887-1965)
Les huit
with the signature 'Le Corbusier' (in the weave, lower left) and the Ateliers Picaud monogram (in the weave, lower right)
Aubusson wool tapestry
223 x 290cm (87 13/16 x 114 3/16in).
Conceived in 1952, this tapestry executed by the Ateliers Picaud under the direction of Pierre Baudouin in 1978 in an edition of six plus two épreuves d'artiste.
Provenance
Ateliers Picaud, Aubusson.
Schroders, Paris.
Citigroup, London.
Sir Winfried Bischoff Collection, UK (a gift from the above in October 2009).
Private collection, London (by descent from the above).
Literature
Exh. cat., Proposition d'une synthèse des arts, Paris 1955, Le Corbusier, F. Léger, Ch. Perriand, Tokyo, 1955, no. 8 (another version illustrated).
Exh. cat., Les tapisseries de Le Corbusier, Geneva, 1975, no. 19 (another version illustrated pl. 12).
M. Mathias, F. Mathey & d'A. Davy, Le Corbusier, Oeuvre tissé, Paris, 1987, no. 12 (another version illustrated pp. 50-51 & 62).
Exh. cat., Charlotte Perriand, L'aventure japonaise, Saint-Étienne, 2013 (another version illustrated p. 23).
Exh. cat., Charlotte Perriand, Inventing a new world, Paris, 2019 (another version illustrated pp. 312 & 313).
'Charlotte Perriand vue de l'intérieur', in Le Journal des Arts, no. 531, 18-31 October 2019 (another version illustrated on front cover).
K. Vázquez, 'Charlotte Perriand. Madame chaise-longue', in La Vanguardia, 31 October 2019 (another version illustrated).
'Le Monde Nouveau de Charlotte Perriand', in Spectacles selection, la lettre des amateurs d'arts et de spectacles, no. 493, 25 December 2019 (another version illustrated).
G. Kafka, 'Paris Exhibition Gives Charlotte Perriand Her Due', in Metropolis, 22 January 2020 (another version illustrated).
Exh. cat., Charlotte Perriand, The Modern Life, London, 2021 (another version illustrated pp. 194, 197 & 201).
Le Corbusier considered the tapestry to be the mural of the modern age. To him, tapestries were equal in importance to his other artforms – such as painting, drawing, sculpture and architecture – as each could further his goal of espousing harmony and precision in a mechanical society. Le Corbusier valued the artform as a bold and powerful vehicle for his designs, whilst also bringing warmth, softness and peaceful acoustics to a private interior. In addition, the utility of their portability led him to coin the term 'Muralnomad' for his tapestries, as he sought to draw upon their original medieval purposes in order to meet the shifting demands of modern life.
In Europe in the Middle Ages, tapestries were largely woven in monasteries and convents. They formed moveable status symbols for the elite, easily transportable from castle to castle, wherein they both decorated and insulated the home. In 1662, Aubusson's tapestry workshops were designated as a royal manufacturer for Louis XIV, with some 800 artisans employed. This activity largely died away during the French Revolution, but in the 1920s, Modern artists such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque spurred a revival of the art, considering tapestries to be as noble an artform as the paintings that inspired them.
Between 1936 and 1965, Le Corbusier completed 27 standalone tapestry designs. The preparatory 'cartoons' would often utilise collaged newspaper and cellophane, resulting in the overlapping colour planes and patterned shapes observable in the present work. As such, he sought to fuse developments of modern art with traditional modes of artisanship, achieving a new harmony of form and aesthetic. In this, he collaborated closely with Pierre Baudouin, a professor of art and textiles in Aubusson, who assisted him with transferring his Purist compositions into tapestry form. Baudouin's mode of weaving was largely traditional, yet it incorporated the novel use of a 'mottled' as opposed to a 'perfect' weave, wherein strands of different coloured wool were combined on the same flute to grant more complex colour hues. The present work's layered spiralling renditions of the number 8 seem to mimic the looping and weaving of the threads themselves, forming an extended conceit of the loom's mathematical precision as it conjures contrastingly biomorphic natural forms. Indeed, Le Corbusier's designs here seem to emulate the twisting vegetative and floral forms of medieval tapestries, harnessing his preoccupation with tradition versus innovation, past versus future, natural versus industrial.
Examples of the present work have been shown in landmark exhibitions on art and design, including Charlotte Perriand's 1955 Proposition d'une synthèse des arts, a collaboration with Fernand Léger and Le Corbusier at the Takashimaya department store in Tokyo. Its private ownership and appearance at auction is a rare occurrence, with one example forming part of the French government's collection at the Mobilier National in Paris, another hanging in the Bureau du Premier Président at the Palais Cambon in Paris, and one further version in the collection of the Musée de Berne. The original cartoon remains at the Fondation Le Corbusier in Paris.
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PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, UK
LE CORBUSIER (1887-1965)
Les huit
with the signature 'Le Corbusier' (in the weave, lower left) and the Ateliers Picaud monogram (in the weave, lower right)
Aubusson wool tapestry
223 x 290cm (87 13/16 x 114 3/16in).
Conceived in 1952, this tapestry executed by the Ateliers Picaud under the direction of Pierre Baudouin in 1978 in an edition of six plus two épreuves d'artiste.
Provenance
Ateliers Picaud, Aubusson.
Schroders, Paris.
Citigroup, London.
Sir Winfried Bischoff Collection, UK (a gift from the above in October 2009).
Private collection, London (by descent from the above).
Literature
Exh. cat., Proposition d'une synthèse des arts, Paris 1955, Le Corbusier, F. Léger, Ch. Perriand, Tokyo, 1955, no. 8 (another version illustrated).
Exh. cat., Les tapisseries de Le Corbusier, Geneva, 1975, no. 19 (another version illustrated pl. 12).
M. Mathias, F. Mathey & d'A. Davy, Le Corbusier, Oeuvre tissé, Paris, 1987, no. 12 (another version illustrated pp. 50-51 & 62).
Exh. cat., Charlotte Perriand, L'aventure japonaise, Saint-Étienne, 2013 (another version illustrated p. 23).
Exh. cat., Charlotte Perriand, Inventing a new world, Paris, 2019 (another version illustrated pp. 312 & 313).
'Charlotte Perriand vue de l'intérieur', in Le Journal des Arts, no. 531, 18-31 October 2019 (another version illustrated on front cover).
K. Vázquez, 'Charlotte Perriand. Madame chaise-longue', in La Vanguardia, 31 October 2019 (another version illustrated).
'Le Monde Nouveau de Charlotte Perriand', in Spectacles selection, la lettre des amateurs d'arts et de spectacles, no. 493, 25 December 2019 (another version illustrated).
G. Kafka, 'Paris Exhibition Gives Charlotte Perriand Her Due', in Metropolis, 22 January 2020 (another version illustrated).
Exh. cat., Charlotte Perriand, The Modern Life, London, 2021 (another version illustrated pp. 194, 197 & 201).
Le Corbusier considered the tapestry to be the mural of the modern age. To him, tapestries were equal in importance to his other artforms – such as painting, drawing, sculpture and architecture – as each could further his goal of espousing harmony and precision in a mechanical society. Le Corbusier valued the artform as a bold and powerful vehicle for his designs, whilst also bringing warmth, softness and peaceful acoustics to a private interior. In addition, the utility of their portability led him to coin the term 'Muralnomad' for his tapestries, as he sought to draw upon their original medieval purposes in order to meet the shifting demands of modern life.
In Europe in the Middle Ages, tapestries were largely woven in monasteries and convents. They formed moveable status symbols for the elite, easily transportable from castle to castle, wherein they both decorated and insulated the home. In 1662, Aubusson's tapestry workshops were designated as a royal manufacturer for Louis XIV, with some 800 artisans employed. This activity largely died away during the French Revolution, but in the 1920s, Modern artists such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque spurred a revival of the art, considering tapestries to be as noble an artform as the paintings that inspired them.
Between 1936 and 1965, Le Corbusier completed 27 standalone tapestry designs. The preparatory 'cartoons' would often utilise collaged newspaper and cellophane, resulting in the overlapping colour planes and patterned shapes observable in the present work. As such, he sought to fuse developments of modern art with traditional modes of artisanship, achieving a new harmony of form and aesthetic. In this, he collaborated closely with Pierre Baudouin, a professor of art and textiles in Aubusson, who assisted him with transferring his Purist compositions into tapestry form. Baudouin's mode of weaving was largely traditional, yet it incorporated the novel use of a 'mottled' as opposed to a 'perfect' weave, wherein strands of different coloured wool were combined on the same flute to grant more complex colour hues. The present work's layered spiralling renditions of the number 8 seem to mimic the looping and weaving of the threads themselves, forming an extended conceit of the loom's mathematical precision as it conjures contrastingly biomorphic natural forms. Indeed, Le Corbusier's designs here seem to emulate the twisting vegetative and floral forms of medieval tapestries, harnessing his preoccupation with tradition versus innovation, past versus future, natural versus industrial.
Examples of the present work have been shown in landmark exhibitions on art and design, including Charlotte Perriand's 1955 Proposition d'une synthèse des arts, a collaboration with Fernand Léger and Le Corbusier at the Takashimaya department store in Tokyo. Its private ownership and appearance at auction is a rare occurrence, with one example forming part of the French government's collection at the Mobilier National in Paris, another hanging in the Bureau du Premier Président at the Palais Cambon in Paris, and one further version in the collection of the Musée de Berne. The original cartoon remains at the Fondation Le Corbusier in Paris.
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