How a nude French architect tarnished Irish designer Eileen Gray’s legacy
A new film tells the story of how Le Corbusier filled Gray’s elegant and understated home on the Riviera with garish murals
Charles Morillon as Le Corbusier in 'E.1027 – Eileen Gray'. Photo: Rise And Shine World Sales
In the summer of 1938, while staying with his friend Jean Badovici in a seaside house built and designed by Eileen Gray, Le Corbusier began painting a series of murals on the whitewashed walls. They were large and abstract, bright and gaudy, and some depicted naked females clumsily entwined.
Better known as an architect, Le Corbusier had always taken himself seriously as a painter, and relished this chance to extend himself in a house he had called “a white and boring cube”.
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