Still Life

1918

Meets Amédée Ozenfant

Jeanneret met the Cubist painter Amédée Ozenfant, in whom he recognised a kindred spirit. Ozenfant encouraged him to paint, and the two began a period of collaboration.

1918

The manifesto After Cubism: the birth of Purism

Ozenfant introduced Jeanneret to Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris and Jacques Lipchitz, and painting became his second profession. Together they issued the manifesto After Cubism, calling for reality to be “purified” of the accidental in favour of ideal, pure forms, and staged joint “Purist” exhibitions.

1920

Adopts the name Le Corbusier

In the first issue of L'Esprit Nouveau, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret signed himself Le Corbusier, an altered form of his maternal grandfather's name, Lecorbésier. The pseudonym reflected his belief that anyone could reinvent themselves.

1920

The magazine L'Esprit Nouveau

With financial backing from the Swiss businessman Raoul La Roche, Jeanneret and Ozenfant launched the art magazine L'Esprit Nouveau. Jeanneret ran its architecture section, where the first chapters of his book Towards an Architecture appeared.

1922

Opens his own office with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret

Le Corbusier opened his own architectural office in Paris and took on his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, who became his permanent partner.

1922

The Ville Contemporaine at the Salon d'Automne

At the Paris Salon d'Automne Le Corbusier presented his plan for the Ville Contemporaine, a city for three million people: identical towers among lower zigzag blocks and a large park. An imaginary city in an imaginary place, it did not attract the attention he had hoped for.