Charles l'Eplatenier ( fr. Charles L'Éplattenier , b.October 9, 1874 Neuchatel - d. June 7, 1946 Le Brenet , Switzerland) - Swiss artist, designer and architect.
Life and work
Charles l'Eplatenier is one of the largest representatives of Art Nouveau in Switzerland. He received his art education in Paris, at the National School of Fine Arts and in the studio of the painter L.-O. Merson . He worked mainly in the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds , where since 1897 he was a professor at the local college of applied art. Among his students should be called the architect Le Corbusier , who, when choosing a pseudonym, may have produced it from the name of his teacher. By this time, the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds had turned into one of the centers of the Swiss watch industry, and the influx of capital contributed to the development of the demand among citizens for art and luxury items created in accordance with then fashionable trends. l'Eplatenie with his students creates his own artistic style in the direction of "modern" - style sapin ("Christmas tree style"), which is the result of a detailed study of wildlife and the translation of its elements into the language of artistic stylization.
The most famous works of l'Eplatenier are monuments to the Republic and the Federal Council in La Chaux-de-Fonds, as well as decorative elements and figurative images in the local cemetery. In addition, the building of the city art museum was created according to the sketches of this master.
Charles l'Eplatenier died in 1946 as a result of an accident during a sketch work on the rocks near the Du River.
Literature
- Die kleine Enzyklopädie , Encyclios-Verlag, Zürich, 1950, Band 2, Seite 41
- Udo Weilacher, Peter Wullschleger, Landschaftsarchitekturführer Schweiz , Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel Berlin Boston, 2002, Seite 82