Still Life with Many Objects

Description

Still Life with Many Objects, a highly finished study for Le Corbusier’s painting Still Life with Numerous Objects (1923), shows a grid-based composition with pure geometries and elements that appear both classical and industrial.

Le Corbusier was one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. In 1918 he founded the short-lived art movement Purism with fellow artist Amadée Ozenfant. A reaction to artistic and historical conditions in post–World War I Paris, Purism championed the industrial, the rational, and the scientific, emphasizing balance and proportion.

Provenance

B. C. Holland, Chicago. Dr. and Mrs. James Christensen, Buchanan, MI, Oct. 1985; sold to Richard and Mary L. Gray, Chicago, 2008 (promised to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019); given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2022.

Still Life with Many Objects

Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret)

1923

Accession Number

202420

Medium

Pastel and colored pencil, with fabricated black chalk, over graphite, on cream wove paper, lined with Japanese paper

Dimensions

54.5 × 72.3 cm (21 1/2 × 28 1/2 in.)

Classification

pastel

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray