Sonia Delaunay (, ; 14 November 1885 – 5 December 1979) was a French artist born to Jewish parents, who spent most of her working life in Paris. She was born in the Russian Empire, now Ukraine, and was formally trained in Russia and Germany, before moving to France and expanding her practice to include textile, fashion, and set design. She was part of the School of Paris and co-founded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes, with her husband Robert Delaunay and others. 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, and the integration of furniture, fabrics, wall coverings, and clothing into her art practice.
Biography Early life (1885–1904)
Sofia Ilinitchna Stern, or Sarah Elievna Stern was born on 14 November 1885 in Hradyzk, or in Odesa, both in Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire,Baron and Damase point out that much about Sonia Delaunay's early life is ambiguous or unknown: "(...) there were parts of her past that she did not easily discuss. (...) the first twenty years of her life (...) can hardly be called a detailed account. Even the actual date of her birth is ambiguous." (page 7). Odessa is mentioned as alternative place of birth, 4 November 1885 as less likely date. to poor Jewish parents. She was the youngest of three children. Her father was foreman of a nail factory.Interview in BOMB Magazine At five she was orphaned and moved to Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire (now Russia), where she was cared for by her mother's brother, Henri Terk. Henri, a successful and affluent 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.Jacques Damame: p. 171 She assumed the name Sonia Terk and received a privileged upbringing. They spent their summers in Finland and travelled 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 and then moved to Paris.
Paris (1905–1910) When she arrived in Paris she enrolled at the Académie de La Palette in Montparnasse. 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 Matisse and Derain. In 1908 she entered into a "marriage of convenience" with German art dealer and gallery owner Wilhelm Uhde, allowing her access to her dowry, and giving Uhde cover for his homosexuality. Sonia Terk gained entrance into the art world via exhibitions at Uhde's gallery and benefited from his connections.
Comtesse de Rose, mother of Robert Delaunay, was a regular visitor to Uhde's gallery, sometimes accompanied by her son. Sonia Terk 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.The divorce took place on 28 February and became final on 11 August 1910. Baron/Damase: pp. 17-20 Sonia was pregnant and she and Robert married on 15 November 1910. Their son Charles was born on 18 January 1911.Baron/Damase: p. 20 They were supported by an allowance sent from Sonia's aunt in St. Petersburg.Sonia Delaunay/Jacques Damase: p. 31
Sonia said about Robert: "In Robert Delaunay I found a poet. A poet who wrote not with words but with colours".
Orphism (1911–1913)
In 1911, Sonia Delaunay 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 colour. "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 Ukrainian 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 DelaunayQuoted in Manifestations of Venus, Caroline Arscott, Katie Scott Manchester University Press, 2000, p. 131 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 colour theories of Michel Eugène Chevreul; they called their experiments with colour 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 color (Pointillism, as used by 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 colour and movement. Other works from this time include her series of paintings entitled Simultaneous Contrasts.
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. Sonia Delaunay described in an interview that the discovery of Cendrars' work “gave me [her] a push, a shock.” She illustrated Cendrars' 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' 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 War in 1914 Sonia and Robert were staying in Hondarribia, in the Basque Country, with their son still in Madrid. They decided not to return to France.Baron/Damase: p. 55. Sonia returned to Paris briefly to make arrangements for their absence. In August 1915 they moved to Portugal, where they shared a home with Samuel Halpert and Eduardo Viana.Baron/Damase: p. 56, Kunsthalle: p. 209, and Düchting: p. 51 all mention an Eduardo Vianna, but there is no trace of a painter with that name. Viana, however, was acquainted with the Delaunays They discussed an artistic partnership with Viana and their friends Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, whom the Delaunays had already met in Paris,Düchting: p. 52 and José de Almada Negreiros.Kunsthalle: p. 209 In Portugal she painted Marché au Minho (Market in Minho, 1916), which she later says was "inspired by the beauty of the country".Kunsthalle: p. 202 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.Baron/Damase: p. 72, Valérie Guillaume: Sonia und Tissus Delaunay. In Kunsthalle: p. 31, Düchting: p. 52, p. 91. According to Morano (p. 19), branches in Bilbao and Barcelona never actually opened. She was the center of a Madrid Salon.Baron/Damase: p. 72. Diaghilev met Manuel de Falla at this salon. The two would later cooperate on The Three-Cornered Hat.
Sonia Delaunay travelled to Paris twice in 1920 looking for opportunities in the fashion business,Baron/Damase: p. 75 and in August she wrote a letter to Paul Poiret stating she wanted to expand her business and include some of his designs. Poiret declined, claiming she had copied designs from his Ateliers de Martine and was married to a French deserter (Robert).Valérie Guillaume: Sonia und Tissus Delaunay. In Kunsthalle: p. 31 Galerie der Sturm in Berlin showed works by Sonia and Robert from their Portuguese period the same year.Kunsthalle: p. 216, Düchting: p. 91
Return to Paris (1921–1944) Sonia, Robert and their son Charles returned to Paris permanently in 1921 and moved into Boulevard Malesherbes 19.Boulevard Malesherbes 19, Paris: The Delaunays' most acute financial problems were solved when they sold Henri Rousseau's La Charmeuse de serpents (The Snake Charmer) to Jacques Doucet.Robert Delaunay's mother had commissioned Rousseau to paint La Charmeuse de serpents, and it was sold to Doucet only on condition he bequeath it to the Louvre. Kunsthalle: p. 210, Baron/Damase: p. 83, Düchting: p. 33 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.The name of the company is not known. Baron/Damase: p. 83, Morano: p. 20 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.Baron/Damase: p. 80, Kunsthalle: p. 216, Düchting: p. 56 In 1924 she opened a fashion studio together with Jacques Heim. Her customers included Nancy Cunard, Gloria Swanson, Lucienne Bogaert and Gabrielle Dorziat.Kunsthalle: p. 218, Morano: p. 21
With Heim she had a pavilion at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, called boutique simultané.Baron/Damase: p. 81, p. 83. Morano: p. 21. Düchting: p. 56, Gronberg: p. 115. Guillaume: p. 33, cites Guévrékian as the architect of the pavilion. Sonia Delaunay gave a lecture at the SorbonneArt into Fashion: p. 102, Baron/Damase: p. 84 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,Sonia designed costumes and contributed to styling the set, several of Robert's paintings were part of the set. Baron/Damase: p. 84, Kunsthalle: pp. 33, 216, Düchting: p. 58. and designed some furniture for the set of the 1929 film Parce que je t'aime (Because I love you).Art into fashion: p. 102 During this period, she also designed haute couture textiles for Robert Perrier, while participating actively in his artistic salon, R-26.Clary, Michèle, Marie-Jacques Perrier; Le Village de Montmartre, C’est Vous, Paris Montmartre, 29 June 2011, Print 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, Perrier and private clients.Maison Robert Perrier (Fédération Nationale du Tissu), 2000, Exhibit, Mairie du 4e arrondissement de Paris, Paris She said "the depression liberated her from business".Düchting: p. 60, p. 91, Kunsthalle: p. 218, Baron/Damase: p. 93, p. 100 1935 the Delaunays moved to rue Saint-Simon 16.rue Saint-Simon 16, Paris: