ABSTRACT
The Maison de Verre was completed in Paris in early 1932, the Large Glass in New York, in 1923. Original surviving plans show that the building was conceived as early as 1927, the year the original eighteenth-century building was purchased by Annie and Dr Jean Dalsace. Throughout the twentieth century, the Maison de Verre has been alternately omitted from and idealised by modernist architectural histories. By the time the Maison de Verre was completed, Chareau was well known as a furniture designer, and had had substantial experience creating interiors and decorations, as well as several other small buildings. On completion, the Maison de Verre was positively received by architectural critics as part of the new modernist aesthetic of glass and steel. The Large Glass is an attempted communication of gassy substances between bachelor and bride. The apparition-like objects on the glass are body parts with their life removed, formed from lead, paint and silver.
