Photos: The Architect of Desire
Eileen Gray designed and built a house for love—and lived to suffer the consequences.

Eileen Gray, 1926. Courtesy of Berenice Abbott/Getty Images.
Gray’s 1926 Bibendum chair. Courtesy of Shira Klasmer/Aram Designs ltd.
E.1027, 2010. Courtesy of Manuel Bougot.
Gray’s Brick Screen, designed between 1922 and 1925. Courtesy of Nadia Mackenzie/Arcaid/Corbis.
Gray’s Wendingen rug. Courtesy of Shira Klasmer/Aram Designs ltd.
Detail of E.1027, 2010. Courtesy of Manuel Bougot.
Le Corbusier at E.1027, in front of one of his murals. © FLC/ADAGP, Paris/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 2015.
Gray’s St. Tropez rug. Courtesy of Shira Klasmer/Aram Designs ltd.
Gray, at home in Paris, with the E.1027 table, 1927. Courtesy of the National Museum of Ireland.
A dilapidated E.1027, 1998. Courtesy of Daniel Ryan/the University of Sydney.