We do not instruct; instead, we invite participants to share. We believe that art connects people, and sharings improve creativity!

Learning from Le Corbusier: A Life Drawing Night with The Modulor, The 5 Principles & The Bathers

Is the Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, writer and urban planner Le Corbusier still relevant?

Today he is hailed as a pioneer of Modern Architecture, and few would dispute his impact on the way we plan our towns and cities. The truth is, we are already living inside his ideas.

But before he became the father of modern architecture, Le Corbusier was a painter of nudes, a collector of shells, and a man obsessed with one question: how does a human figure occupy space? He practised as both artist and architect, dividing his day in two — the studio before lunch, the office after. For twenty years he sketched the same body: standing, reaching, reclining — until it became the Modulor, his golden-ratio measure for designing everything from door handles and furniture to landscapes and entire cities.

Tonight, that body is in the room with us.

We will use it as our starting point to revisit Corbusier’s design principles and discover how they still resonate with each of our own creative languages. Welcome to a very special life-drawing night with one of history’s most radical creative minds as our unofficial guest host :)

Art Ref for this session: https://uk.pinterest.com/earlymasterworkslifeDrawing/le-corbusier/ (https://uk.pinterest.com/earlymasterworkslifeDrawing/le-corbusier/)

Life Drawing Ref: https://uk.pinterest.com/earlymasterworkslifeDrawing/life-drawing/ (https://uk.pinterest.com/earlymasterworkslifeDrawing/life-drawing/)

Past Gathering Photos: https://uk.pinterest.com/earlymasterworkslifeDrawing/life-drawing-london-earlymasterworkscom/ (https://uk.pinterest.com/earlymasterworkslifeDrawing/life-drawing-london-earlymasterworkscom/)

Cover Image Credit:

(Left) Photo by Willy Rizzo for Paris Match, 1953. - In this rare color photograph taken by Willy Rizzo in 1953, Le Corbusier stands poised between two of his own abstract paintings, offering a glimpse into the multidimensional genius of one of modern architecture’s most influential figures. Captured during an exhibition of his visual art, the image presents the architect not amid blueprints or concrete, but immersed in the bold, gestural language of color and form. His paintings—rooted in the Purist ideals he developed alongside Amédée Ozenfant—mirror the clarity, rhythm, and spatial logic that define his architectural oeuvre. This portrait not only reveals Le Corbusier’s lesser-known artistic pursuits but also underscores the seamless integration of art and architecture at the heart of his modernist vision.

(Right) Photo of a sculptural architectural model featuring the Modulor—Le Corbusier's anthropometric scale of proportions based on the human body and the golden ratio.

Model:

Felicity is a professional life model, poem, art and literature enthusiast. More here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DfQdZvmCGyC/ (https://www.instagram.com/p/DfQdZvmCGyC/)

About the Host:

Hello! My name is Rose and I started the Early Masterworks Creative Club. I was born in Beijing but grew up in Hong Kong, I trained as an architect at the University of Hong Kong and Cornell University. After that, I worked and lived in all sorts of fascinating places — New York City, Tokyo, Shanghai, Brittany in France and Rovinj in Croatia — before my husband and I landed in London and decided to make it our permanent home about three years ago.

I love being surrounded by all-round creatives. My father, mother, husband and I — we're all what I'd call moonlighters, constantly juggling side projects and simply unable to stop building new things, whether that's a machine, a circuit board, a building, a drawing, a recipe, a business, a writing, a knitwear or an algorithm. We just can't stop creating — and I absolutely love it! I founded my first life drawing club in Hong Kong over ten years ago as a pet project. Then, in October 2024, I launched the EM Life Drawing Club at the Firepit Art Gallery in Greenwich, to create a safe and welcoming space where my fellow creative friends can meet, share ideas and connect in a relaxed, non-judgemental environment. Many new friendships, romances and collaborative relationships have blossomed there since.

About Early Masterworks (EM) Creative Club (https://earlymasterworks.com/):

This creative experience is brought to you by the Early Masterworks (EM) Creative Club (https://www.instagram.com/earlymasterworkslondon/). We're best known for our themed, untutored life drawing gatherings (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/102562147421) in some of London's most one-of-a-kind venues. You may also know us from the creative experiences we've created with the Nation (https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/)al Gallery (https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/), Somerset House (https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/), London Design Festival (https:

Description supplied by the event organiser.