Le Corbusier & Jeanneret, Pierre
Le Corbusier et Pierre Jeanneret. Oeuvre complète de 1910-1929 (1929-1934; 1934-1938; 1938-1946; 1946-1952; 1952-1957; 1957-1965).
Zurich, H.Girsberger 1937 (”nouvelle édition”), 1947 (”quatrième édition”), 1951 (”quatrième édition”), 1950 (”deuxième édition”), 1955 (”deuxième edition augmentée”), 1957 (first edition), 1966 (”2 Auflage”).
Full Description
Oblong small folio. 7 vols. 216pp; 207 + (1)pp; 176pp; 207 + (1)pp; 252pp; 223 + (1)pp; 239 + (1)pp. Each volume contains hundreds of photo ills, plans and sketches. The volumes are uniformly bound in publisher’s cloth. The volumes for 1929-1934, 1934-1938, 1938-46 and 1952-1957 derive from the library of Brian Housden (one with a presentation inscription to him from his father, one with his own ownership inscription), the other volumes from other private sources.
A set of the seven volumes of Le Corbusier’s Oeuvre Complète which covered the entirety of his completed architectural output between 1910 and 1965 (he was to die just as the last of these volumes was about to be published, and one further volume was to be published in 1970 recording his “last works”). The volumes are in various editions, reflecting the fact that Brian Housden, to whom the majority of these volumes belonged, was putting his holdings of them together in the 1950s, but this does not significantly impact on their content, for that did not alter to any measurable extent between editions except for the first volume, represented here in its second edition, with an introductory letter to the South African architect Rex Martienssen not found in the first edition. It may be helpful to note that the first three volumes, and the first part of the fourth volume, record buildings designed during Le Corbusier’s partnership with Pierre Jeanneret (which ended in 1940), while the second part of the fourth volume and the subsequent volumes record buildings designed by Le Corbusier during his period as a sole practitioner.