12 - Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier (La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, 1887 – 1965, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France), “Nus avec bouteilles et verres près de la fenêtre” (Nudes with Bottles and Glasses by the Window), ca. 1928, watercolor over pen-and-ink drawing on ivory-colored vélin, signed lower right, with handwritten theoretical and didactic instructions in pen-and-ink on the reverse, as well as a sketch of two interconnected compartments (copy enclosed), 21 x 26.5 cm, mounted on backing board and set under glass and a mat in a silver box frame, overall dimensions: 42 x 50.5 cm. Limit 7,200,- The motif of two overlapping forms—whether as rocks, glass bottles, or people—occupied Le Corbusier from 1907 well into the 1940s. The Art Institute of Chicago holds a pencil drawing that is nearly identical in composition and is dated 1907 (Inv. No. 1963.1840). Since the artist—whose real name was Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris but who, as documented, did not begin using the pseudonym Le Corbusier until the early 1920s—our watercolor should be dated accordingly.