Collections

The Foundation Le Corbusier, universal beneficiary of the architect, inherited all of his properties after his death, including his art collection and his personal and professional archives.

The Foundation’s collection includes major works of his personal production, notably La Cheminée (1918) which he considers to be his first painting, and works by artists he met during his life (Fernand Léger, André Bauchant, Louis Soutter, Pablo Picasso…).
They include 82 paintings, 31 sculptures, thousands of drawings and papier collés, around 100 lithographs and prints, enamels and tapestries produced by Le Corbusier. Le Corbusier’s works illustrate the richness and diversity of his artistic practice.

Le Corbusier’s personal and professional archives comprise over 400,000 documents. 
The personal archives include an important private and family correspondence, the manuscripts of his books, thousands of documents and notes, his diaries, notebooks, etc. In addition, there is a collection of objects (pottery, statuettes, pipes, stones, tree parts, shells, bones, etc.) and furniture such as Thonet chairs, his office in the rue de Sèvres, and furniture created for his living spaces. The Fondation Le Corbusier also has his personal library.
The professional archives are composed of the entire collection of the rue de Sèvres workshop : 35.000 plans, 54 models, letters, various documents, 15.000 black and white photographs and slides.

Since its creation, the Foundation Le Corbusier collects all the publications and academic works on Le Corbusier as well as all the reprints of his works.

Covering all the artist’s creative periods, the Foundation’s collection provides a global approach to the man and his plastic, architectural and literary work. This unique collection places the Foundation at the heart of research on Le Corbusier.