V-leg officer's chair

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier, was born on October 6, 1887, in La Chaux-de-Fonds in the Swiss Jura province of Switzerland, a region known at the time for its exquisite watchmaking industry. Jeanneret’s earliest artistic training was with Charles L’Eplattenier at the École des Arts Décoratifs, where he studied decorative watch-making. L’Eplattenier was a painter and architect who worked largely within the Art Nouveau style, and, later in his career, Jeanneret would describe the older artist as his only teacher. L’Eplattenier’s influence on the young Le Corbusier cannot be overstated, as it was he who suggested that Le Corbusier pursue architecture, and on his directive traveled extensively through Europe and the Mediterranean between 1907 and 1911, where he studied and observed a wide variety of architectural styles. Much of these travels inspired what would inspire later tenets of Le Corbusier’s architectural practice, such as his conception between collective and individual residential space.

Paris, France