Did Le Corbusier fly to Prague in 1924?

Le Corbusier (i. e. Charles Edouard Jeanneret), architect (1887-1965).

Typed postcard signed (C. Jeanneret!) to Charles (=Karel). Teige (1900 – 1951) was a Czech modernist avant-garde artist, writer, critic and one of the most important figures of the 1920s and 1930s movement, in French.

Paris, 28 April 1924.

8,8 x 13,8 cm. Postcard, hand stamped with the Name „L´ESPRIT NOUVEAU“ and addressor his international review.

EUR 900

In the well-known biographical works on Le Corbusier, his first trip to Prague is dated to 1928; this postcard reveals a new fact – or did the trip not actually take place after all? Le Corbusier’s announcement of how he would be travelling there is also very interesting. The text mentions that the journey will be organised around 10 or 15 May ‘with the Franco-Roumaine or by other means’.

The Compagnie Franco-Roumaine (founded in 1920) was the world’s first transcontinental airline.  Its aeroplanes flew from Paris (Le Bourget Airport) via Strasbourg and Prague to Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest and later even as far as Constantinople (Istanbul).  In 1924, a flight from Paris to Prague was considered highly exclusive, very expensive and extremely progressive.

Translation of the postcard written in French: „I am sending you by mail, photographic slides that are to be projected at our conferences. These consist of 5 texts that I would like you to have translated into Czech, typed up, and photographed as slides in the exact same format as the French originals. Please let us know when we should arrive around May 10th or 15th and whether travel arrangements should be made through the Franco-Romanian agency or by any other means. Very cordially yours, We’ll pick them up upon our arrival in Prague.“

There is some slight smudging in places, but overall it is very nice.

Provenance: Presumably acquired by the previous owner from the New York autograph dealer ‘David Schulson Autographs’.