Villa E-1027

Tribute to the modern masterpiece built at the end of the 1920s by the Irish-Scottish architect and designer Eileen Gray.

The building was the second modern villa on the French Riviera and remains a precious work of architectural heritage. In addition to its minimalistic elegance, the villa's history is full of drama. I will only mention a small part of this, the vandalism by the "father of modernism" Le Corbusier. This story inspired me to illustrate E-1027 for "bad dog", found in the official Inktober 2022 prompt list. Villa E-1027 was the first building designed by Eileen Gray. It was built for herself and her companion of the time Jean Badovici, editor-in-chief of the famous avant-garde magazine L'Architecture Vivante. It was also thanks to the link between Badovici and Le Corbusier that Gray met the pioneer of modernity. Until then, the most famous modernist villa on the French Riviera was Villa Noailles, designed by French architect Robert Mallet-Stevens, in Hyères in the Var region.

Digital drawing made in Procreate for the word « bad dog » of the official Inktober 2022 prompt list

The house's name, E-1027, was a symbol of the couple's relationship: E for Eileen, 10 and 2 representing Badovici's initials as they appear in the alphabet, and 7 for Gray.

The villa was covered in bright white stucco. Thin metal railings adorned its balconies and terraces, resembling a small ship sailing on its terrace viewing the ocean. She wished everything to be calm and serene, and stenciled words such as "enter quietly" and "no laughing" appeared on the walls. Eileen enjoyed the villa on the summertime, but when her relationship with Badovici ended, she left to build another modernist house, allowing him to continue using E-1027. When Le Corbusier first visited the Villa in 1937, his admiration turned into an obsession which haunted him for the rest of his life.

Digital illustration of the Villa E-1027 made in March 2023, based on my b&w drawing below

That summer, while an invited guest of Badovici, he decided that the interior walls were too white. He painted eight interior racy murals of Picasso-like female figures, some intertwined in sexy pose. 

Proud of his work, he declared: "I am dying to dirty the walls: ten compositions are ready, enough to daub the whole lot"; Photos taken by paparazzis show him painting nude.

Whan Gray heard about the frescoes, shocked, she called it an act of vandalism. Badovici, put in a difficult spot, chastened Le Corbusier and told him he had worn out his welcome.  Feeling already estranged from the villa, she never returns. In 1952, still obsessed with Gray's villa, Le Corbusier builds a less than 4 square metres wooden cabin above E-1027. In the intention to take control of the site, the cabin being little more than a watchpost, a kind of watchdog's niche. It became popularly known as The Cabanon.

When Badovici died in 1956, in exchange for the parcel of the Cabanon, Le Corbusier built five camping units built, next to it. Surrounded by loud architecture, the landscape's aestethic is forever altered.

When Le Corbusier published his frescoes in his complete works as well as in L'architecture d'aujourd'hui (1948), the Villa E-1027 is mentioned as "a house at Cap-Martin" and Gray's name isn't even cited. Later, Le Corbusier will be attributed the design of the house as well as some of the furniture elements. Paradoxically,this act of vandalism might be the reason why the Villa still stands today because it was in the coast below the house where the famous architect died.

In Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Le Corbusier is well remembered, the path leading to Cap Moderne from the Menton side is called Promenade Le Corbusier; he is the star attraction. Eileen Gray fades away.

The confusion persists today, with many authors attributing the house solely to Badovici, or to Badovici and Gray. Some suggest that Le Corbusier was involved in the design of the project. The name of Gray is conspicuously absent in most history books of modern architecture, including recent, supposedly critical works.

If you want to know more, the 2015 film The Price of Desire, directed by Mary McGuckian is dedicated to Eileen Gray and the story of Villa E-1027.

SOURCES : - Article « Une maison malfamée : E.1027 » de Beatriz Colomina, pour le site www.espazium.ch, publié le 09/01/2012 - Article « Eileen Gray: A long life and a short dream, the story of villa E1027 » de Maureen Emerson, pour the Riviera Reporter, publié le 04/08/2015 (en anglais) - Site www.capmoderne.com, de l'association Cap Moderne, chargée de la mise en valeur et de la gestion touristique, culturelle et commerciale du site Eileen Gray - Etoile de Mer - Le Corbusier