Le Corbusier Before Le Corbusier: Applied Arts, Architecture, Painting, and Photography, 1907-1922 edited by Stanislaus von Moos and Arthur Rüegg
Stanislaus von Moos and Arthur Rüegg, editors
In his numerous writings, Le Corbusier remained uncharacteristically silent about his early career. This intriguing book examines his nascent years as a designer and architect, focusing on the period from 1907 to 1922—the year he changed his name from Charles Edouard Jeanneret and established his identity as Le Corbusier. The contributors to the book offer in unprecedented detail an account of Le Corbusier’s formative years and the cultural, intellectual, and artistic concerns that absorbed him as a young artist in Switzerland and Paris.
From 1907 to 1922 Jeanneret learned the art and craft of architecture and design, and defined his own image as an artist. The book discusses the cultural climate of his Swiss hometown, La Chaux-de-Fonds; his early mentors, friends, and clients; his educational pursuits, including his self-designed Grand Tour; and his first successes as an architect and designer. More than 350 illustrations—including architectural drawings and models, watercolors, sketches, photographs, and furniture—show the range of young Le Corbusier’s work and illuminate the principal themes and issues of his formative years.
Stanislaus von Moos is professor of modern art at the University of Zurich. Arthur Rüegg is professor in the School of Architecture at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zurich, and also a practicing architect.
Table of Contents
Susan Weber Soros
Stanislaus con Moos and Arthur Ruegg
compiled by Klaus Spechtenhauser
1. Voyages en Zigzag
Stanislaus von Moos
2. Le Corbusier and the Gothic
3. Jeanneret, the City, and Photography
4. Architecture: Proportion, Classicism, and Other Issues
5. The Challenge of the "Grand Siecle"
6. Marcel Levaillant and "La Question du Mobilier"
7. From Art Nouveau to Purism: Le Corbusier and Painting
with contributions from H. Allen Brooks, Antonio Brucculeri, Marie-Eve Celio, Corinne Charles, Francoise Ducros, Giuliano Gresleri, Francesco Passanti, Klaus Spechtenhauser
Notes to the Catalogue
Checklist of the Exhibition
List of Sources CIted