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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.
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 Delaunay 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".
"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. 131Contemporary art critics recognize this as the point where she moved away from perspective and naturalism in her art. Around the same time, cubism 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 colours (Pointillism, as used by e.g. Georges Seurat) in which primary colour 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.
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 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 Delaunay).Valérie Guillaume: Sonia und Tissus Delaunay. In Kunsthalle: p. 31 Der Sturm in Berlin showed works by Sonia and Robert from their Portuguese period the same year.Kunsthalle: p. 216, Düchting: p. 91
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:
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."Baron/Damase: p. 102 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.Düchting: p. 71
Robert Delaunay died of cancer in October 1941.
In 1967 (25 February – 5 April) she was a part of an exhibition of artist-decorated cars entitled 'Cinq voitures personnalis ées par cinq artistes contemporains' ('Five Cars Personalized by Five Contemporary Artists') organized by the journal R éalités as a fundraiser for French medical research. She designed the pattern for a Matra 530 by experimenting with optical effects causing the car to recompose the pattern into a light blue shade when in motion 'so as not to attract other drivers' attention to the point of causing accidents through distraction.'
Sonia Delaunay died 5 December 1979, in Paris, aged 94. She was buried in Gambais, next to Robert Delaunay's grave.Baron/Damase: p. 201
Her son, Charles Delaunay, became an expert in jazz music during the 1930s. He was a jazz critic, organizer of jazz concerts and a founder of the Hot Club of France (the first jazz club in France) and the first editor of Jazz Hot Magazine, the club's official publication.
US fashion designer Perry Ellis devoted his fall 1984 collection to Delaunay, producing knits and prints in Delaunay colors and patterns.
Retrieved 30 Jan 2025.
Sonia Delaunay was one of the artists presented in the retrospective group exhibition Dada is Dada at Bildmuseet, Umeå University, Sweden, running from 2017-11-17 to 2018-05-20.
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