Sonia Delaunay
Encyclopedia
Sonia Delaunay was a Jewish
-French
artist who, with her husband Robert Delaunay
and others, cofounded the Orphism
art movement
, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. Her work extends to painting, textile design and stage set design. She was the first living female artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre
in 1964, and in 1975 was named an officer of the French Legion of Honor.
Her work in modern design included the concepts of geometric abstraction, the integration of furniture, fabrics, wall coverings, and clothing.
, today in Poltava Oblast
in the Ukraine
, on 14 November 1885. At a young age she moved to St. Petersburg, where she was cared for by her mother's brother, Henri Terk. Henri, a successful and affluent Jewish lawyer, and his wife Anna wanted to adopt her but her mother would not allow it. Finally in 1890 she was adopted by the Terks. She assumed the name Sonia Terk and received a privileged upbringing with the Terks, they spent their summers in Finland
and traveled widely in Europe introducing Sonia to art museums and galleries. When she was 16 she attended a well-regarded secondary school in St. Petersburg, where her skill at drawing was noted by her teacher. When she was 18, at her teacher's suggestion, she was sent to art school in Germany
where she attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe
. She studied in Germany until 1905 when she decided to move on to Paris
.
. Unhappy with the mode of teaching, which she thought was too critical, she spent less time at the Académie and more time in galleries around Paris. Her own work during this period was strongly influenced by the art she was viewing including the post-impressionist
art of Van Gogh
, Gauguin
and Henri Rousseau
and the fauves
including Henri Matisse
and Derain
. During her first year in Paris she met, and in 1908 married, German homosexual art gallery owner Wilhelm Uhde
. Little is known about their union, but it is assumed to have been a marriage of convenience to escape the demands of her parents, who disliked her artistic career, for her to return to Russia. Sonia gained entrance into the art world via exhibitions at Uhde's gallery and benefitted from his connections, and Uhde masked his homosexuality through his public marriage to Sonia.
Comtesse de Rose, mother of Robert Delaunay
, was a regular visitor to Uhde's gallery, sometimes accompanied by her son. Sonia met Robert Delaunay in early 1909. They became lovers in April of that year and it was decided that she and Uhde should divorce. The divorce was finalised in August 1910. Sonia was pregnant and she and Robert married on November 15, 1910. Their son Charles
was born on January 18, 1911. They were supported by an allowance sent from Sonia's aunt in St. Petersburg.
Sonia said about Robert: "In Robert Delaunay I found a poet. A poet who wrote not with words but with colours".
In 1911, Sonia made a patchwork quilt for Charles's crib, which is now in the collection of the Musée National d'Art Moderne
in Paris. This quilt was created spontaneously and uses geometry and color.
Contemporary art critics recognize this as the point where she moved away from perspective and naturalism in her art. Around the same time, cubist
works were being shown in Paris and Robert had been studying the color theories of Michel Eugène Chevreul
; they called their experiments with color in art and design simultanéisme. Simultaneous design occurs when one design, when placed next to another, affects both; this is similar to the theory of colors (Pointillism
, as used by e.g. Georges Seurat) in which primary color dots placed next to each other are "mixed" by the eye and affect each other. Sonia's first large-scale painting in this style was Bal Bullier (1912–13), a painting known for both its use of color and movement.
The Delaunays' friend, the poet and art critic Guillaume Apollinaire
, coined the term Orphism to describe the Delaunays' version of cubism in 1913. It was through Apollinaire that in 1912 Sonia met the poet Blaise Cendrars
who was to become her friend and collaborator. She illustrated his poem La prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France
(Prose of the Trans-Siberian and of Little Jehanne of France) about a journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway
, by creating a 2m-long accordion-pleated book. Using simultaneous design principles the book merged text and design. The book, which was sold almost entirely by subscription, created a stir amongst Paris critics. The simultaneous book was later shown at the Autumn Salon
in Berlin in 1913, along with paintings and other applied artworks such as dresses, and it is said that Paul Klee
was so impressed with her use of squares in her binding of Cendrars's poem that they became an enduring feature in his own work.
in 1914 Sonia and Robert were staying in Fontarabie, with their son still in Madrid. They decided not to return to France. In August 1915 they moved to Portugal where they shared a home with Samuel Halpert
and Eduardo Viana
. With Viana and their friends Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, whom the Delaunays had already met in Paris, and José de Almada Negreiros they discussed an artistic partnership. In Portugal she painted Marché au Minho (the market at Minho, 1916), which she later says was "inspired by the beauty of the country". Sonia had a solo exhibition in Stockholm (1916).
The Russian Revolution
brought an end to the financial support Sonia received from her family in Russia, and a different source of income was needed. In 1917 the Delaunays met Sergei Diaghilev in Madrid. Sonia designed costumes for his production of Cleopatra (stage design by Robert Delaunay
) and for the performance of Aida
in Barcelona. In Madrid she decorated the Petit Casino (a nightclub) and founded Casa Sonia, selling her designs for interior decoration and fashion, with a branch in Bilbao
. She was the center of a Madrid Salon
.
Sonia Delaunay travelled to Paris twice in 1920 looking for opportunities in the fashion business, and in August she wrote a letter to Paul Poiret
stating she wants to expand her business and include some of his designs. Poiret declined, claiming she has copied designs from his Ateliers de Martine and is married to a French deserter (Robert
). Galerie der Sturm
in Berlin
showed works by Sonia and Robert from their Portuguese period the same year.
Sonia, Robert and their son Charles returned to Paris permanently in 1921 and moved into Boulevard Malesherbes 19. The Delaunay's most acute financial problems were solved when they sold La Charmeuse de serpents (the snake charmer) to Jacques Doucet
. Sonia Delaunay made clothes for private clients and friends, and in 1923 created fifty fabric designs using geometrical shapes and bold colours, commissioned by a manufacturer from Lyon
. Soon after, she started her own business and simultané became her registered trademark.
For the 1923 staging of Tristan Tzara
s play Le Cœur à Gaz she designed the set and costumes. In 1924 she opened a fashion studio together with Jacques Heim
. Her customers included Nancy Cunard
, Gloria Swanson
, Lucienne Bogaert
and Gabrielle Dorziat
.
With Heim she had a pavilion at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes
, called boutique simultané. Sonia Delaunay gave a lecture at the Sorbonne on the influence of painting on fashion.
Sonia designed costumes for two films: Le Vertige
directed by Marcel L'Herbier
and Le p'tit Parigot
, directed by René Le Somptier
, and designed some furniture for the set of the 1929 film Parce que je t'aime (Because I love you). The Great Depression
caused a decline in business. After closing her business, Sonia Delaunay returned to painting, but she still designed for Jacques Heim, Metz & Co
and private clients. She said "the depression liberated her from business". 1935 the Delaunays moved to rue Saint-Simon 16.
By the end of 1934 Sonia was working on designs for the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne
, for which she and Robert worked together on decorating two pavilions: the Pavillon des Chemins de Fer and the Palais de l'Air. Sonia however did not want to be part of the contract for the commission, but chose to help Robert if she wanted. She said "I am free and mean to remain so." The murals and painted panels for the exhibition were executed by fifty artists including Albert Gleizes
, Léopold Survage
, Jacques Villon
, Roger Bissière
and Jean Crotti
.
Robert Delaunay died of cancer in October 1941.
After the second world war, Sonia was a board member of the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles
for several years. Sonia and her son Charles in 1964 donated 114 works by Sonia and Robert to the Musée National d'Art Moderne
. Alberto Magnelli
told her "she and Braque were the only living painters to have been shown at the Louvre
". In 1966 she published Rythmes-Couleurs (color-rhythms), with 11 of her gouache
s reproduced as pochoirs
and texts by Jacques Damase, and in 1969 Robes poèmes (poem-dresses), also with texts by Jacques Damase containing 27 pochoirs. For Matra, she decorated a Matra 530
. In 1975 Sonia was named an officer of the French Legion of Honor. Her autobiography, Nous irons jusqu'au soleil (We shall go up to the sun) was published in 1978.
Sonia Delaunay died December 5, 1979, in Paris
, aged 94. She was buried in Gambais
, next to Robert Delaunay's grave.
Her work in modern design included the use of geometric abstraction and the integration of furniture, fabrics, wall coverings and clothing. Jazz expert Charles Delaunay
is her son.
and the United Kingdom
's Royal Mail
in 2004 to commemorate the centenary of the Entente Cordiale
.
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
-French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
artist who, with her husband Robert Delaunay
Robert Delaunay
Robert Delaunay was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstract, reminiscent of Paul Klee...
and others, cofounded the Orphism
Orphism (art)
Orphism or Orphic Cubism , the term coined by the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, was a little known art movement during the time of Cubism that focused on pure abstraction and bright colors influenced by Fauvism and the dye chemist Eugène Chevreul...
art movement
Art movement
An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time, or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defined within a number of years...
, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. Her work extends to painting, textile design and stage set design. She was the first living female artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
in 1964, and in 1975 was named an officer of the French Legion of Honor.
Her work in modern design included the concepts of geometric abstraction, the integration of furniture, fabrics, wall coverings, and clothing.
Early life (1885-1904)
Sarah Ilinitchna Stern was probably born in Gradizhske, then in the Russian EmpireRussian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, today in Poltava Oblast
Poltava Oblast
Poltava Oblast is an oblast of central Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Poltava.Other important cities within the oblast include: Komsomolsk, Kremenchuk, Lubny and Myrhorod.-Geography:...
in the Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, on 14 November 1885. At a young age she moved to St. Petersburg, where she was cared for by her mother's brother, Henri Terk. Henri, a successful and affluent Jewish lawyer, and his wife Anna wanted to adopt her but her mother would not allow it. Finally in 1890 she was adopted by the Terks. She assumed the name Sonia Terk and received a privileged upbringing with the Terks, they spent their summers in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
and traveled widely in Europe introducing Sonia to art museums and galleries. When she was 16 she attended a well-regarded secondary school in St. Petersburg, where her skill at drawing was noted by her teacher. When she was 18, at her teacher's suggestion, she was sent to art school in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
where she attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
. She studied in Germany until 1905 when she decided to move on to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Paris (1905-1910)
When she arrived in Paris she enrolled at the Académie de la Palette in MontparnasseMontparnasse
Montparnasse is an area of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail...
. Unhappy with the mode of teaching, which she thought was too critical, she spent less time at the Académie and more time in galleries around Paris. Her own work during this period was strongly influenced by the art she was viewing including the post-impressionist
Post-Impressionism
Post-Impressionism is the term coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art since Manet. Fry used the term when he organized the 1910 exhibition Manet and Post-Impressionism...
art of Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
, Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
and Henri Rousseau
Henri Rousseau
Henri Julien Félix Rousseau was a French Post-Impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier , a humorous description of his occupation as a toll collector...
and the fauves
Fauvism
Fauvism is the style of les Fauves , a short-lived and loose group of early twentieth-century Modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism...
including Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
and Derain
André Derain
André Derain was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse.-Early years:...
. During her first year in Paris she met, and in 1908 married, German homosexual art gallery owner Wilhelm Uhde
Wilhelm Uhde
Wilhelm Uhde was a German art collector, dealer, author and critic, an early collector of modernist painting, and a significant figure in the career of Henri Rousseau.-Biography:...
. Little is known about their union, but it is assumed to have been a marriage of convenience to escape the demands of her parents, who disliked her artistic career, for her to return to Russia. Sonia gained entrance into the art world via exhibitions at Uhde's gallery and benefitted from his connections, and Uhde masked his homosexuality through his public marriage to Sonia.
Comtesse de Rose, mother of Robert Delaunay
Robert Delaunay
Robert Delaunay was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstract, reminiscent of Paul Klee...
, was a regular visitor to Uhde's gallery, sometimes accompanied by her son. Sonia met Robert Delaunay in early 1909. They became lovers in April of that year and it was decided that she and Uhde should divorce. The divorce was finalised in August 1910. Sonia was pregnant and she and Robert married on November 15, 1910. Their son Charles
Charles Delaunay
Charles Delaunay was a French author, jazz expert, co-founder and long-term leader of the Hot Club de France....
was born on January 18, 1911. They were supported by an allowance sent from Sonia's aunt in St. Petersburg.
Sonia said about Robert: "In Robert Delaunay I found a poet. A poet who wrote not with words but with colours".
Orphism (1911-1913)
Musée National d'Art Moderne
The Musée National d'Art Moderne is the national museum for modern art of France. It is located in Paris and is housed in the Centre Pompidou in the 4th arrondissement of the city. Created in 1947, it was then housed in the Palais de Tokyo and moved to its current location in 1977...
in Paris. This quilt was created spontaneously and uses geometry and color.
"About 1911 I had the idea of making for my son, who had just been born, a blanket composed of bits of fabric like those I had seen in the houses of Russian peasants. When it was finished, the arrangement of the pieces of material seemed to me to evoke cubist conceptions and we then tried to apply the same process to other objects and paintings." Sonia Delaunay
Contemporary art critics recognize this as the point where she moved away from perspective and naturalism in her art. Around the same time, cubist
Cubism
Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...
works were being shown in Paris and Robert had been studying the color theories of Michel Eugène Chevreul
Michel Eugène Chevreul
Michel Eugène Chevreul was a French chemist whose work with fatty acids led to early applications in the fields of art and science. He is credited with the discovery of margaric acid and designing an early form of soap made from animal fats and salt...
; they called their experiments with color in art and design simultanéisme. Simultaneous design occurs when one design, when placed next to another, affects both; this is similar to the theory of colors (Pointillism
Pointillism
Pointillism is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of pure color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term Pointillism was first coined by art critics in the late 1880s to ridicule the works...
, as used by e.g. Georges Seurat) in which primary color dots placed next to each other are "mixed" by the eye and affect each other. Sonia's first large-scale painting in this style was Bal Bullier (1912–13), a painting known for both its use of color and movement.
The Delaunays' friend, the poet and art critic Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire
Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother....
, coined the term Orphism to describe the Delaunays' version of cubism in 1913. It was through Apollinaire that in 1912 Sonia met the poet Blaise Cendrars
Blaise Cendrars
Frédéric Louis Sauser , better known as Blaise Cendrars, was a Swiss novelist and poet naturalized French in 1916. He was a writer of considerable influence in the modernist movement.-Early years:...
who was to become her friend and collaborator. She illustrated his poem La prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France
La prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France
La prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France is a collaborative artists' book by Blaise Cendrars and Sonia Delaunay-Terk...
(Prose of the Trans-Siberian and of Little Jehanne of France) about a journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway
Trans-Siberian Railway
The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. It is the longest railway in the world...
, by creating a 2m-long accordion-pleated book. Using simultaneous design principles the book merged text and design. The book, which was sold almost entirely by subscription, created a stir amongst Paris critics. The simultaneous book was later shown at the Autumn Salon
Salon d'Automne
In 1903, the first Salon d'Automne was organized by Georges Rouault, André Derain, Henri Matisse, Angele Delasalle and Albert Marquet as a reaction to the conservative policies of the official Paris Salon...
in Berlin in 1913, along with paintings and other applied artworks such as dresses, and it is said that Paul Klee
Paul Klee
Paul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism...
was so impressed with her use of squares in her binding of Cendrars's poem that they became an enduring feature in his own work.
Spanish and Portuguese years (1914-1920)
The Delaunays travelled to Spain in 1914, staying with friends in Madrid. At the outbreak of the First World WarWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1914 Sonia and Robert were staying in Fontarabie, with their son still in Madrid. They decided not to return to France. In August 1915 they moved to Portugal where they shared a home with Samuel Halpert
Samuel Halpert
Samuel Halpert was born in 1884 in Białystok, Russia and he died in 1930 in Detroit, Michigan. He was an American painter.-Early days:Samuel Halpert was born on December 25, 1884 in Białystok, Russia, where his friend Max Weber had been born three years earlier. His family immigrated to New York...
and Eduardo Viana
Eduardo Viana
Eduardo Afonso Viana was a Portuguese painter. He was one of the members of the first modern generation in Portuguese painting, like Amadeo de Souza Cardoso and Almada Negreiros....
. With Viana and their friends Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, whom the Delaunays had already met in Paris, and José de Almada Negreiros they discussed an artistic partnership. In Portugal she painted Marché au Minho (the market at Minho, 1916), which she later says was "inspired by the beauty of the country". Sonia had a solo exhibition in Stockholm (1916).
The Russian Revolution
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
brought an end to the financial support Sonia received from her family in Russia, and a different source of income was needed. In 1917 the Delaunays met Sergei Diaghilev in Madrid. Sonia designed costumes for his production of Cleopatra (stage design by Robert Delaunay
Robert Delaunay
Robert Delaunay was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstract, reminiscent of Paul Klee...
) and for the performance of Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
in Barcelona. In Madrid she decorated the Petit Casino (a nightclub) and founded Casa Sonia, selling her designs for interior decoration and fashion, with a branch in Bilbao
Bilbao
Bilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...
. She was the center of a Madrid Salon
Salon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
.
Sonia Delaunay travelled to Paris twice in 1920 looking for opportunities in the fashion business, and in August she wrote a letter to Paul Poiret
Paul Poiret
Paul Poiret was a French fashion designer. His contributions to twentieth-century fashion have been likened to Picasso's contributions to twentieth-century art.-Early life and career:...
stating she wants to expand her business and include some of his designs. Poiret declined, claiming she has copied designs from his Ateliers de Martine and is married to a French deserter (Robert
Robert Delaunay
Robert Delaunay was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstract, reminiscent of Paul Klee...
). Galerie der Sturm
Der Sturm
Der Sturm was a magazine covering the expressionism movement founded in Berlin in 1910 by Herwarth Walden. It ran weekly until monthly in 1914, and became a quarterly in 1924 until it ceased publication in 1932....
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
showed works by Sonia and Robert from their Portuguese period the same year.
Return to Paris (1921-1944)
Jacques Doucet (fashion designer)
Jacques Doucet was a French fashion designer, known for his elegant dresses, made with flimsy translucent materials in superimposing pastel colors....
. Sonia Delaunay made clothes for private clients and friends, and in 1923 created fifty fabric designs using geometrical shapes and bold colours, commissioned by a manufacturer from Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
. Soon after, she started her own business and simultané became her registered trademark.
For the 1923 staging of Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement...
s play Le Cœur à Gaz she designed the set and costumes. In 1924 she opened a fashion studio together with Jacques Heim
Jacques Heim
Jacques Heim was a Parisian designer and manufacturer of women's furs and couture, whose maison de couture opened in 1930 and closed in 1969....
. Her customers included Nancy Cunard
Nancy Cunard
Nancy Clara Cunard was a writer, heiress and political activist. She was born into the British upper class but strongly rejected her family's values, devoting much of her life to fighting racism and fascism...
, Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson was an American actress, singer and producer. She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the...
, Lucienne Bogaert
Lucienne Bogaert
Lucienne Bogaert, was a French actress...
and Gabrielle Dorziat
Gabrielle Dorziat
Gabrielle Dorziat was a French stage and film actress. Dorziat was a fashion trend setter in Paris and helped popularize the designs of Coco Chanel. The Théâtre Gabrielle-Dorziat, a theater in Épernay, France is named for her.-Biography:...
.
With Heim she had a pavilion at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes
Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes
The International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts was a World's fair held in Paris, France, from April to October 1925. The term "Art Deco" was derived by shortening the words Arts Décoratifs, in the title of this exposition, but not until the late 1960s by British art critic...
, called boutique simultané. Sonia Delaunay gave a lecture at the Sorbonne on the influence of painting on fashion.
Sonia designed costumes for two films: Le Vertige
Le Vertige
-Production:Robert and Sonia Delaunay, and Robert Mallet-Stevens contributed to the set and costume design for the film.-External links:...
directed by Marcel L'Herbier
Marcel L'Herbier
Marcel L'Herbier, Légion d'honneur, was a French film-maker, who achieved prominence as an avant-garde theorist and imaginative practitioner with a series of silent films in the 1920s. His career as a director continued until the 1950s and he made more than 40 feature films in total...
and Le p'tit Parigot
Le p'tit Parigot
Le p'tit Parigot is a 1926 French movie serial in six parts.It was directed by René Le Somptier and starred Georges Biscot.*part 1: "Premiere Partie" *part 2: "La Belle Inconnue" *part 3: "Le Complot"...
, directed by René Le Somptier
René Le Somptier
René Eugène Le Somptier was a French filmmaker and journalist.He made his first short film, Poum à la chasse, in 1908 with his father as an actor...
, and designed some furniture for the set of the 1929 film Parce que je t'aime (Because I love you). The Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
caused a decline in business. After closing her business, Sonia Delaunay returned to painting, but she still designed for Jacques Heim, Metz & Co
Metz & Co
' is a department store in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, founded in 1740 by Mozes Samuels who sold his company to his three sons in 1794. has the right to display the Dutch royal coat of arms with the legend 'By Royal Warrant Purveyor to the Royal Household' since 1815...
and private clients. She said "the depression liberated her from business". 1935 the Delaunays moved to rue Saint-Simon 16.
By the end of 1934 Sonia was working on designs for the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne
Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937)
The Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne was held from May 25 to November 25, 1937 in Paris, France...
, for which she and Robert worked together on decorating two pavilions: the Pavillon des Chemins de Fer and the Palais de l'Air. Sonia however did not want to be part of the contract for the commission, but chose to help Robert if she wanted. She said "I am free and mean to remain so." The murals and painted panels for the exhibition were executed by fifty artists including Albert Gleizes
Albert Gleizes
Albert Gleizes , was a French painter. Born Albert Léon Gleizes and raised in Paris, he was the son of a fabric designer who ran a large industrial design workshop...
, Léopold Survage
Léopold Survage
Léopold Survage was an important French painter of Russian-Danish-Finnish descent born in Vilmanstrand, Finland .-Biography:At a young age, Survage was...
, Jacques Villon
Jacques Villon
Jacques Villon was a French cubist painter and printmaker.-Early life:Born Gaston Emile Duchamp in Damville, Eure, in the Haute-Normandie region of France, he came from a prosperous and artistically inclined family...
, Roger Bissière
Roger Bissière
Roger Bissière was a French artist who painted in the abstract Tachisme style. He was born in Villeréal, Lot-et-Garonne, and died in Boissièrettes...
and Jean Crotti
Jean Crotti
Jean Crotti was a French painter.Crotti was born in Bulle, Fribourg, Switzerland. He first studied in Munich, Germany at the School of Decorative Arts, then at age 23 moved to Paris to study art at the Académie Julian. Initially he was influenced by Impressionism, then by Fauvism and Art Nouveau...
.
Robert Delaunay died of cancer in October 1941.
Later life (1945-1979)
Salon des Réalités Nouvelles
The Salon des Réalités Nouvelles is an association of artists and an art exhibition in Paris, focusing on abstract art.A first exhibition with the name was held in 1939 in Galerie Charpentier, organised by Robert Delaunay, Sonia Delaunay, Nelly van Doesburg and Fredo Sidès.In 1946 the Salon was...
for several years. Sonia and her son Charles in 1964 donated 114 works by Sonia and Robert to the Musée National d'Art Moderne
Musée National d'Art Moderne
The Musée National d'Art Moderne is the national museum for modern art of France. It is located in Paris and is housed in the Centre Pompidou in the 4th arrondissement of the city. Created in 1947, it was then housed in the Palais de Tokyo and moved to its current location in 1977...
. Alberto Magnelli
Alberto Magnelli
Alberto Magnelli was an Italian modern painter who was a significant figure in the post war Concrete art movement.- Biography :...
told her "she and Braque were the only living painters to have been shown at the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
". In 1966 she published Rythmes-Couleurs (color-rhythms), with 11 of her gouache
Gouache
Gouache[p], also spelled guache, the name of which derives from the Italian guazzo, water paint, splash or bodycolor is a type of paint consisting of pigment suspended in water. A binding agent, usually gum arabic, is also present, just as in watercolor...
s reproduced as pochoirs
Stencil
A stencil is a thin sheet of material, such as paper, plastic, or metal, with letters or a design cut from it, used to produce the letters or design on an underlying surface by applying pigment through the cut-out holes in the material. The key advantage of a stencil is that it can be reused to...
and texts by Jacques Damase, and in 1969 Robes poèmes (poem-dresses), also with texts by Jacques Damase containing 27 pochoirs. For Matra, she decorated a Matra 530
Matra 530
The Matra 530 is a sports car created and built by the French engineering group Matra.-The first real Matra:In 1965 Matra's CEO Jean-Luc Lagardère decided to develop a sports car more accessible to the ordinary, non-racing public, a voiture des copains , as successor to the Matra Djet...
. In 1975 Sonia was named an officer of the French Legion of Honor. Her autobiography, Nous irons jusqu'au soleil (We shall go up to the sun) was published in 1978.
Sonia Delaunay died December 5, 1979, in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, aged 94. She was buried in Gambais
Gambais
Gambais is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France....
, next to Robert Delaunay's grave.
Her work in modern design included the use of geometric abstraction and the integration of furniture, fabrics, wall coverings and clothing. Jazz expert Charles Delaunay
Charles Delaunay
Charles Delaunay was a French author, jazz expert, co-founder and long-term leader of the Hot Club de France....
is her son.
Legacy
Delaunay's painting Coccinelle was featured on a stamp jointly released by the French Post Office, La PosteLa Poste
La Poste may refer to:* La Poste, the postal service of France* La Poste Suisse, the French name for Swiss Post* La Poste, the French name for De Post - La Poste - Die Post of Belgium* La Poste Tunisienne, the Tunisian postal service...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's Royal Mail
Royal Mail
Royal Mail is the government-owned postal service in the United Kingdom. Royal Mail Holdings plc owns Royal Mail Group Limited, which in turn operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide...
in 2004 to commemorate the centenary of the Entente Cordiale
Entente Cordiale
The Entente Cordiale was a series of agreements signed on 8 April 1904 between the United Kingdom and the French Republic. Beyond the immediate concerns of colonial expansion addressed by the agreement, the signing of the Entente Cordiale marked the end of almost a millennium of intermittent...
.
External links
- Julio Maryann De, Biography of Sonia Delaunay, Jewish Women Encyclopedia
- Art Deco Online video by The New York Public Library which includes Sonia Delaunay's artistic works.