Still Life Filled with Space

1924

Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret)
French, born Switzerland, 1887–1965

This still life is a prime example of Purism, a style developed in 1918 by the architect Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (later called Le Corbusier) and the painter Amédée Ozenfant and championed in their journal, L’Esprit nouveau (The New Spirit). Promoting the elimination of the picturesque in favor of mathematical order and logic, Purist artists, including Fernand Léger, sought to represent the modern, “universal” forms of the world—especially machine-made objects—in a precise and balanced way as part of their effort to promote a new, modern classicism. Despite the generally smooth, brushless style of Purist pictures, Still Life Filled with Space has an unusual amount of brushwork and texture, notably in the patterned border, which the artist made by dragging a comblike tool repeatedly through the wet white paint.

Status: On View, Gallery 393
Department: Modern Art

Artist: Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret)
Title: Still Life Filled with Space
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1924
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 60.3 × 73 cm (23 3/4 × 28 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Bequest of Richard S. Zeisler
Reference Number: 2007.279
Copyright: © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris / FLC

Amédée Ozenfant and Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, La peinture moderne (Paris: Les Éditions G. Cres & Cie, 1927), n.p. (ill.).
Sidney Janis Gallery, The Classic Spirit in 20th Century Art, exh. cat. (New York: Sidney Janis Gallery, 1964), no. 7, n.p. (ill.).
Peter Selz, Seven Decades: 1895-1965: Cross Currents In Modern Art, exh. cat. (New York: Public Education Association of the City of New York, 1966), pp. 67 and 80 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report 2006-2007 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2007), p. 33.

New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, The Classic Spirit in 20th Century Art, 1964, cat. 7, n.p. (ill.).
New York, Public Education Association of the City of New York, Seven Decades: 1895-1965: Cross Currents In Modern Art, April 26-May 21, 1966, cat. 134.
Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Masters from the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 6, 2013–Feb. 16, 2014, no cat. no.
Chicago, Wrightwood 659, Ando and Le Corbusier: Masters of Architecture, Oct. 12, 2018–Dec. 15, 2018, no cat.

Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, by Jan. 29, 1960; sold to Richard S. Zeisler, Jan. 29, 1960 [receipt in curatorial file]; bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2007.

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