L'Oeuvre Plastique - Quatre Lithographies Originales. by Charles-Édouard Jeanneret

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret - Le Corbusier, 1887-1967
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L'Oeuvre Plastique - Quatre Lithographies Originales.

Complete set of four lithographs in colours. 1938. Each signed and dated (printed signature). Drawn by Corbusier for the album: ‘Oeuvre Plastique’, issued by Albert Morancé, Paris 1938. The issued edition, as here, was c.500 but a very large percentage of the edition seems to have been lost during the war. The album, and in particular the set of four lithographs, are now very rare.
Note: There was a separate edition of the lithographs, on larger paper, signed in pencil and numbered from 100.

Very fine strong impressions with unfaded colours. On the typical stiff wove paper of the album edition. Each in generally excellent condition; very slight traces of time discolouration at the extreme sheet edges (images very fresh). The full sheets with varying margins. Each sheet: 215 x 270mm. 8 ½ x 10 5/8ins. Images varying sizes: c. 180-213x265mm

Price: £ 5950 ($9400)
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The set of four lithographs in colour which Le Corbusier drew for Albert Morancé's monograph on his work in 1938 are perhaps his earliest works in the medium. The edition was issued in two forms, 100 impressions of each image signed in pencil and numbered, and the album edition which was signed only in the stones. The exact edition of the album issue is not recorded but it was probably not much more than 500. It is very scarce nowadays, probably because a large percentage of the edition was either lost or destroyed during the War. A complete matched set of the four lithographs (as here), even from the album issue, is very uncommon indeed.

By the late 1930's Le Corbusier had moved on from the 'purist' mechanical-inspired imagery of his 20's paintings to forms based on a monumental humanism. In 1925 in his theoretical essay 'Urbanisme' he proposed the revolutionary concept that architecture should be linked both in its use of form and in its use of space to the human shape and to social use. The monumental curving shapes with their emphasis on surface and texture and their links to humanity, and the dependence of building form on building use changed the whole course of 20th century architecture. In his art from 1930 onwards he reflected these same ideas.