Sonia Delaunay | Items for sale, auction results and history

For Sonia Delaunay, colour was an artistic obsession and passion. The French artist was celebrated for her unique approach to colour and sensuous form of abstraction, creating dynamic canvases infused with rich tones that radiate and pulse with energy.

Born Sarah Stern in 1885 in Odessa, Ukraine, the artist was orphaned at the age of five and went under the care of her maternal uncle, Henri Terk. In 1890 she was officially adopted by the Terks and assumed the name Sonia Terk until her marriage to French artist Robert Delaunay.

Sonia Delaunay studied art at the Academy of Fine Art in Karlsruhe, Germany before moving to Paris in 1905. There, where she immersed herself in the avant-garde art scene and met Robert Delaunay in early 1909. The couple married a year later, and together, they developed the art movement known as Orphism, coined by poet Guillaum Apollinaire, a style of non-figurative painting characterised by the use of bold colours and geometric shapes to create a sense of rhythm and movement. This approach was heavily influenced by the vibrant energy of modern urban life and the theories of colour and perception.

Since her first experiments in abstraction, Delaunay believed that the interplay of pure, geometric forms and vibrant colour together could create a lyrical visual language capable of rendering complex psychological and emotive states. Guided by an intuitive sense of creation, she painted directly onto the canvas in a spontaneous and even impulsive act. Incorporating a configuration of circles, rectangles, squares and triangles in an intricate pattern, Delaunay developed her direct, spontaneous, and simultaneist approach to painting over her long career.

Sonia Delaunay’s art was not confined to the canvas. In 1918, she opened her own workshop and boutique, Casa Sonia, in Madrid, selling garments that featured her abstract patterns. Delaunay also designed costumes for the renowned founder of Ballets Russes Sergey Diaghilev’s ballet Cleopatra. Her varied career bridged the realms of fashion, interior design, graphics, textiles with the world of fine art.

In 1964 Sonia Delaunay became the first living female artist to have a retrospective at the Louvre. Delaunay’s impact and influence extended beyond her lifetime. Today, her works can be found in in major museums around the globe.