Ville de La Chaux-de-Fonds – Service de l’urbanisme, des mobilités et de l’environnement

Contact

Sylvie Pipoz, déléguée à la valorisation du patrimoine

City of La Chaux-de-Fonds
Urban Planning, Mobility and Environment Department
Passage Léopold-Robert 3
Case postale 370
CH – 2301 La Chaux-de-Fonds
Switzerland

phone +41 (0)32 967 63 96

mail sylvie.pipoz-sume@ne.ch

Destroyed by fire in 1794, La Chaux-de-Fonds turned to the watchmaking industry from the 19th century onwards. Its unique orthogonal urban ensemble, built by and for the watchmaking industry, has been on UNESCO’s World Heritage List since 2009. La Chaux-de-Fonds’ Art Nouveau style is evident in its architecture, watchcase decoration and decorative arts. Many buildings constructed in the early 20th century incorporate standardised Art Nouveau elements in their ironwork, stained-glass windows, stairwells and façade decorations. At the same time, students at the École d’Art, under the guidance of their teacher Charles L’Eplattenier, were creating an ornamental vocabulary inspired by the region’s natural environment.

Major artists

Painted portrait of Jeanne Perrochet
Jeanne Perrochet 
Sculptor
Silver portrait of Léon Perrin
Léon Perrin
Sculptor, decorator, teacher
Sophie L’Eplattenier 
Artist, painter and ceramist
Black and white portrait of Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier)
Architect
Silver portrait of Louis Houriet
Louis Houriet 
Metal specialist
Painting of a self-portrait of Marie-Louise Goering
Marie-Louise Goering
Painter, watercoloursit, embroiderer, textile designer
Black and white portrait of André Evard
André Evard
Painter, drawer and miniaturist

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The curved forms of French and Belgian Art Nouveau met the more geometric shapes inspired by German and Viennese Jugendstil. Observation of nature led to stylisation and simplification in order to create ornamental motifs based on simple geometric shapes. This local variant is known as the Fir Style. ‘Where the Parisians put a leaf modelled after nature, and the Germans a square polished like a mirror, well, we’ll put a triangle with pives, and our taste will be safe (…)’, letter from Charles-Édouard Jeanneret to Charles L’Eplattenier, 26 February 1908. In 1905, Charles L’Eplattenier opened the Cours supérieur d’art et de décoration to develop the practice of decorative arts and apply them to interior design and architecture.

Several students, including Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, the future Le Corbusier, studied at the École d’art before going on to pursue varied personal careers. Between 1905 and 1914, students at the Cours Supérieur d’Art et de Décoration worked collectively on a number of private commissions, including the Villa Fallet, the Salon Bleu and the Crématoire. They explored the ornamental language of the Sapin style in a variety of media. Ceramics, stained glass, painting, sculpture and furniture all became areas of exploration. Following differences of opinion between Charles L’Eplattenier, the management of the École d’art and the authorities, and then the outbreak of the First World War, the Cours supérieur d’art et de décoration closed its doors in 1914.