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The long history of the LC4 infinitely adjustable chaise longue

The infinitely adjustable chaise longue, also known as the Chaise Longue Le Corbusier, continues to delight design aficionados. Its l...

Design MarketFebruary 2016
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Le Surrepos du Docteur Pascaud (Source : Arthur Rüegg)
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The infinitely adjustable chaise longue, also known as the "Chaise Longue Le Corbusier", continues to delight design furniture aficionados. Its long, elegant silhouette, instantly recognisable, is a hymn to purity and comfort, 2 essential dimensions of modern design that make this object an icon of designer furniture. The Italian publisher Cassina markets and distributes the famous chair in its LC collection, under the model name LC4. [caption id="attachment3716" align="alignright" width="257"] Charlotte Perriand (source: theredlist.com)[/caption] If the chair bears the name of Le Corbusier, it would be more accurate to attribute its design to a woman of great talent, Charlotte Perriand Charlotte Perriand , who along with the great Swiss-born architect revolutionised the way interior furniture was designed in the late 1920s. A radical revolution in a country where Paris was then one of the world capitals of Art Deco. Trained at the Ecole de l'union centrale des arts décoratifs (EUCAD), Charlotte Perriand was a promising student, but already had little interest in the decorative arts. She graduated from the school in 1925 and won the right to take part in the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts, a first recognition for this young woman of 22, who was not afraid to make her mark in a very masculine environment. Charlotte Perriand began her career in 1926, when she was sponsored by Henri Rapin and Maurice Dufrêne, members of the Salon des artistes décorateurs committee, and produced her Coin de Salon Coin de Salon, which she presented at the Salon des artistes décorateurs that same year. In 1927, she made a name for herself by exhibiting a silver cabinet in violet wood, metal and glass, again at the Salon des artistes décorateurs. The use of glass and above all metal, which she would later use for the LC4 chair, marked her departure from the dominant Art Deco style of the time. But it was in 1927 that she made her mark, just a year and a half after leaving school! Charlotte Perriand moved into an apartment-studio on the corner of Place Saint-Sulpice and designed Le Bar sous le toit Le Bar sous le toit in her home, followed by the Salle à Manger de Saint-Sulpice la Salle à Manger de Saint-Sulpice . Recognised by her peers, her use of steel and metal and her attention to the rationalisation of space caused a breakthrough in the world of decorative arts. It was no longer the decorative aspect that was important, but the search for a functional home and furniture. [caption id="attachment3727" align="aligncenter" width="526"] Charlotte Perriand on the LC4 chaise longue (source: etapes.com)[/caption] It was in this context that Charlotte Perriand decided to meet Le Corbusier, who was already a world-renowned architect, but vilified by the profession of decorative artists for being too avant-garde and a self-proclaimed opponent of decoration. He visited the flat in the Rue Saint-Sulpice and realised that the apprentice architect had already made some seating furniture - stools and chairs - that corresponded to sketches he had drawn to define 9 different ways of sitting. Corbu" quickly proposed a programme of work to Charlotte Perriand and offered her a partnership with his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret-Gris Pierre Jeanneret-Gris . [caption id="attachment3788" align="aligncenter" width="725"] Charlotte Perriand and Le Corbusier (source: oceandrive.com) / Perriand, Le Corbusier, Jeanneret (source: bauhausmovement.wordpress.com)[/caption] Charlotte Perriand began work on an ergonomic study of seats adapted to the positions of a mannequin. One of these was a half-rest position, in line with one of the positions (for women) sketched out by Le Corbusier. This was the start of the long LC4 adventure. Several models were designed, including one inspired by Docteur Pascaud's Surrepos armchair, a reclining chair with a tabular, metal structure. [caption id="attachment3778" align="aligncenter" width="475"] Docteur Pascaud's Surrepos (source: Arthur Rüegg)[/caption] But in the end it was the rocking chair made by Thonet - a pioneer in the industrial production of tubular steel furniture - that inspired Charlotte Perriand's project for a rocking chair. But the project soon came up against the problem of the chair's base: what system could be devised to enable the user to hold himself in a desired position? The answer was found in the aviation sector: an ovoid profile in lacquered sheet steel found by chance in an aeronautical products catalogue! The base took the shape of an H, to which 4 conical legs were attached. In 1928, the famous chaise longue was born... [caption id="attachment3782" align="aligncenter" width="435"] Drawing of patent 672.824 of the sliding system (source: Book "Charlotte Perriand" by Jacques Barsac, AChP 28 025)[/caption] The rocking chaise longue The rocking chaise longue, not yet known as the LC4 chair - it was the publishing house Cassina that named it - deserves the title of design icon because, as well as incorporating an ingenious mechanism that made it ergonomic and functional, Perriand and Le Corbusier combined leather with the prototype, a new material for the time. The final prototype incorporates a foal leather mattress cover over a steel wire structure attached by springs to the metal frame. Avant-garde in terms of the materials used, ergonomic with its adjustable cylindrical headrest and seat that follows the shape of the body, elegant in terms of its silhouette and use of leather, the infinitely adjustable chaise longue was a design must-have at the time. And that's why it's highly prized by collectors. When was the first official "release" of the Chaise Longue basculante? It dates back to 1928, when Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, as architects, with Charlotte Perriand in charge of interior design, installed the famous chair with other furniture produced by their agency in the library on the 1st floor of the pavilion at the Church villa. Henry and Barbara Church then entrusted the restoration of their former property in Ville-d'Avray to the architectural firm of Le Corbusier. Then, at the Salon d'Automne in 1929, where the trio caused a sensation by exhibiting Un équipement intérieur d'une habitation in a 90 m2 model cell, the chair, so elegant in a modern setting, caused a sensation. [caption id="attachment3730" align="alignright" width="297"] Salon d'Automne 1929 (source: ©Archives Charlotte PerriandADAGP2014 Cassina)[/caption] Charlotte Perriand , Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret-Gris "exploded" in the media in 1929 with the Salon d'Automne . However, they had no experience of mass-produced furniture, and their home furnishings, however brilliant, were particularly expensive to produce. Bruno Weil, representing the famous Austrian company Thonet and Director of Thonet Frères Paris, decided to sign a first publishing contract with the 3 architects for the production of certain models. What followed was less glorious... The first models of the rocking chaise longue were produced and published by Thonet in 1930. They were produced in a "luxury" version under the name of model B 306 model B 306 . Unfortunately, the chaise longue was never a commercial success. And what applies to the famous seat also applies to the other pieces of furniture designed by Perriand, either alone or in collaboration with Le Corbusier and Jeanneret-Gris, all published by Thonet. At the end of its first life, in 1937, only 172 copies of the Thonet chaise longue would have been produced... A meagre result considering the success of Thonet's bentwood chair n°18, which sold millions of copies at the time! In correspondence between Charlotte Perriand, to whom Le Corbusier had delegated the management of the furniture, and the publisher Thonet, the latter insisted that the very high price of the "Le Corbusier-Jeanneret-Perriand" range did not correspond to the expectations of the consumer of the time, who was looking for inexpensive models. On the contrary, the economic crisis of 1929 did nothing to encourage the growth of avant-garde furniture. Sources: Book "Le Corbusier, meubles et intérieurs 1905-1965" by Arthur Rüegg, Fondation Le Corbusier Paris (left) / Book "Charlotte Perriand" by Jacques Barsac, DR/AChP (right) Sources : Book "Le Corbusier, meubles et intérieurs 1905-1965" by Arthur Rüegg, Fondation Le Corbusier Paris (left) / Book "Charlotte Perriand" by Jacques Barsac, DR/AChP (right) In 1959, Le Corbusier, disheartened by the commercial failure of the furniture designed by his tightly-knit team, had the Chaise Longue reissued for his own benefit, with his own signature... It wasn't until 1964 that the chaise longue found a publisher of choice to finally reach a public that loved beautiful design. The Italian firm Cassina , under the direction of Charlotte Perriand , reissued the furniture signed Le Corbusier-Jeanneret-Perriand . Since then, the famous seat has continued to feature prominently in the Lombardy firm's catalogue under the name Chaise Longue LC4 . In 1938, after the flop of the Thonet contract, Charlotte Perriand decided to revive her creations and use wood to give them a new lease of life. The aim was to design an all-wood range of furniture that would be more economical. As a result, she studied a wood and leather version of the chaise longue basculante (rocking chaise longue). In 1940, during her stay in Japan, she designed the chaise longue Tokyo chaise longue Tokyo, a variation on the famous LC4 chaise longue. Published exclusively by Cassina for the first time in the world, this model with its sinuous, organic shape is available in bamboo, teak or beech. [caption id="attachment3734" align="aligncenter" width="522"] Tokyo chaise longue (source: archiexpo.com)[/caption] In 2014, as a tribute to Charlotte Perriand, Cassina produced the LC4 CP LC4 CP model for Louis Vuitton's Icônes 2014 Collection. This is a limited edition of 1,000 pieces. The self-supporting mattress is attached directly to the structure. It is made from natural, untreated leather by Louis Vuitton's tanneries. François Boutard Discover all the pieces by Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret available on Design Market Discover all the pieces by Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret available on Design Market Discover all the pieces by Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret available on Design Market [caption id="attachment_3740" align="aligncenter" width="442"] Source: modernhomedecor.eu[/caption]

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