Joseph Rykwert

摘要

In about 1965, that much underestimated painter Prunella Clough asked me if I knew her aunt's work. An aunt's work? I imagined charming watercolours. I should have known better. Clough was referring to E.1027, the fabulous and, to me, venerable 'Maison en Bord de Mer' on the Cote d'Azur, France. What I found so entrancing was not only the splendid house, but the way in which its designer, Clough's aunt Eileen Gray, managed to create a complete, relaxed yet bracing seaside dwelling to which all the details contributed. This portfolio of attributes was part of the mythology of modernism, even if odd photographs of the house have appeared showing Le Corbusier's ambiguous reliefs onrnits walls. E.1027 is only yards from where Le Corbusier would build his seaside Cabanon, to which an exhibition is currently devoted at the RIBA.