Queer Places:
19 Boulevard Malesherbes, 75008 Paris, France
16 Rue de Saint-Simon, 75007 Paris, France
Église Saint Aignan Churchyard
Gambais, Departement des Yvelines, Île-de-France, France
Sonia
Delaunay (November 14, 1885 – December 5, 1979) was a Ukrainian-born
French artist, who spent most of her working life in
Paris and,
with her husband
Robert Delaunay and others, cofounded the
Orphism
art movement, noted for its use of strong colors 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.[1]
Sarah Ilinitchna Stern was most likely born on 14 November 1885
in Hradyzk,
then
Ukraine was part of the
Russian Empire, today in
Poltava Oblast in
Ukraine.[2]
Her father was foreman of a nail factory.[3]
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 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.[4]
She assumed the name Sonia Terk and received a privileged upbringing with
the Terks. 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 when she decided to move
on to Paris.[5]
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
Henri Matisse and
Derain. During her first year in Paris she met, and in 1908 married,
German 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.[6]
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.[7]
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.[8]
Sonia was pregnant and she and Robert married on November 15, 1910. Their
son
Charles was born on January 18, 1911.[9]
They were supported by an allowance sent from Sonia's aunt in St.
Petersburg.[10]
Sonia said about Robert: "In Robert Delaunay I found a poet. A poet who
wrote not with words but with colours".[9]
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.
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.
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.[13]
In August 1915 they moved to Portugal where they shared a home with
Samuel Halpert and
Eduardo Viana.[14]
They discussed an artistic partnership with Viana and their friends
Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, whom the Delaunays had already met in Paris,[15]
and
José de Almada Negreiros.[16]
In Portugal she painted Marché au Minho (Market in Minho,
1916), which she later says was "inspired by the beauty of the country".[17]
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.[18]
She was the center of a Madrid
Salon.[19]
Sonia, Robert and their son Charles returned to Paris permanently in
1921 and moved into Boulevard Malesherbes 19.[23]
The Delaunays' most acute financial problems were solved when they sold
Henri Rousseau's La Charmeuse de serpents (The Snake Charmer)
to
Jacques Doucet.[24]
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.[25]
Soon after, she started her own business and simultané became her
registered trademark.
For the 1923 staging of
Tristan Tzaras play
Le Cœur à Gaz she designed the set and costumes.[26]
In 1924 she opened a fashion studio together with
Jacques Heim. Her customers included
Nancy Cunard,
Gloria Swanson,
Lucienne Bogaert and
Gabrielle Dorziat.[27]
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.[34]
She said "the depression liberated her from business".[35]
1935 the Delaunays moved to rue Saint-Simon 16.[36]
At the end 1940 Sophie Taeuber-Arp helped Sonia and Robert selling their painting in Swiss, her homeland.
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.[39]
Sonia and her son Charles in 1964 donated 114 works by Sonia and Robert to
the
Musée National d'Art Moderne.[40]
Alberto Magnelli told her "she and
Braque were the only living painters to have been shown at the
Louvre".[41][42] In 1975 Sonia was named an officer of the
French Legion of Honor. From 1976 she developed a range of textiles,
tableware and jewellery with French company Artcurial, inspired by her
work from the 1920s.[45]
Her autobiography, Nous irons jusqu'au soleil (We shall go up to
the sun) was published in 1978.[46]
Sonia Delaunay died December 5, 1979, in
Paris,
aged 94. She was buried in
Gambais,
next to Robert Delaunay's grave.[47]
My published books:
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