Le Corbusier

“Fir Tree Study”, the title of this work, alludes to Le Corbusier’s beginnings at the School of Arts and Crafts at La Chaux-de-Fonds. The “style sapin”, meaning “fir-tree style”, is a regional manifestation of Art Nouveau. The fir-tree style was applied to arts and crafts as well as architecture. Le Corbusier probably learnt about this style from his teacher Charles L’Eplattenier.

In his drawing from 1905-06, he schematically sketched the structure of a tree in graphite pencil. Two more detailed studies of buds or bifurcations are shown at the top right. It is particularly remarkable to see how Le Corbusier concentrated on a certain natural structure. In 1925, in a text on decorative art, he remembered his teacher, mentioning that the latter once made the following utterance:

“It is true that only nature inspires us. But don’t engage with nature like the landscape painters, who only show its external appearance. Explore the cause, the form, the vital development, and synthesize them by creating ornaments.”

According to L’Eplattenier, artists should not depict the superficial aspects of nature. Instead, the study of nature serves to analyse structures and the concealed order of things. These should be explored and turned into art to make them visible.

L’Eplattenier encouraged Le Corbusier to become an artist, giving him his first assignment as an architect. Between 1905 and 1907, Le Corbusier built the Villa Fallet in La Chaux-de-Fonds in the “fir-tree style”.