сontroversy with
le corbusier

Gray and Badovici split in 1931. E-1027 remained with Badovici while Gray built herself a new villa: Tempe a païa. She explicitly stated that she wanted the walls of E-1027 to remain permanently white. This lead to controversy when Le Corbusier, a friend of Badovici, visited E-1027 in 1938 and, without receiving permission, painted eight cubist murals on its walls. Some of them contained sexual images alluding to Gray, and photos revealed that Le Corbusier had painted her naked. Gray declared it an act of vandalism and male chauvinism, while Le Corbusier claimed he was merely joking.

However, for Le Corbusier, the murals and E-1027 likely weren’t simply a joke. He was obsessed with E-1027 throughout the rest of his life. Le Corbusier tried to purchase the house many times and added extra imagery to some of the murals when he could—even as late as 1962. After his efforts failed, he built himself a small summer house adjacent to E-1027 called Cabanon. Le Corbusier eventually died of a heart attack in 1965 while swimming in front of E-1027.

Le Corbusier’s mural at E-1027 depicting two lovers
Tempe a païa interior
Created with Sketch.

the significance of E-1027 is that it is both an example of avant-garde modernism and a subtle critique of the functionalist element in modernism. —tim benton, art historian

Eileen Gray’s St. Tropez rug. View from above

Eileen Gray’s St. Tropez rug. © Aram. Aram.co.uk

 

late years and death

When the Second World War broke out in France Gray was interned as a foreign national and her homes were looted. Italian soldiers briefly inhabited E-1027, using Le Corbusier murals for target practice. After the war, Gray’s career was largely forgotten until art historian Joseph Rykwert published an essay on her work in Domus magazine in 1967.

The essay sparked a revival of interest in Gray’s work, culminating in an extensive exhibition of her creations in London in the early 1970s. Next, she received an honorary fellowship from the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, and later Yves Saint Laurent purchased one of her Art Deco lacquered screens. She also commissioned certain of her unique furniture pieces to be mass produced. Eileen Gray died in 1976. She is buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, but her grave isn’t identified, as her family never paid the burial fee.

Tablescape in black and white designed by Eileen Gray

Tablescape designed by Eileen Gray, circa 1920.

 

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stories. eileen gray

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