Sonia Delaunay

Sonia Delaunay (14 November 1885 – 5 December 1979) was a French artist who spent most of her working life in Paris. Born to Jewish parents in what is now Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire, she received formal training in Russia and Germany before moving to France. There, she broadened her practice to include textile, fashion, and set design.

She belonged to the School of Paris and, alongside her husband Robert Delaunay and others, co-founded the Orphism art movement, which is known for its bold colours and geometric shapes. In 1964, she became the first living female artist to have a retrospective at the Louvre, and in 1975 she was made an officer of the French Legion of Honor. Her work in modern design embraced geometric abstraction and brought furniture, fabrics, wall coverings, and clothing into her artistic practice.

Early life (1885–1904)

Sofia Ilinitchna Stern, also called Sarah Elievna Stern, was the youngest of three children, born on 14 November 1885 in either Hradyzk or Odesa, both in Ukraine. Her parents were poor Jews; her father managed a nail factory. Orphaned at five, she moved to Saint Petersburg to live with her mother’s brother, Henri Terk, a wealthy lawyer, and his wife Anna. Though her mother initially resisted, the Terks formally adopted her in 1890, and she took the name Sonia Terk.

She enjoyed a privileged upbringing, spending summers in Finland and travelling across Europe, visiting museums and galleries. At sixteen, she attended a respected secondary school in St. Petersburg, where a teacher noticed her drawing talent. At eighteen, on that teacher’s advice, she went to Germany to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, remaining there until 1905 before moving to Paris.

Paris (1905–1910)

In Paris, she enrolled at the Académie de La Palette in Montparnasse but found the teaching too critical and spent more time in galleries. Her early work was heavily influenced by the Post-Impressionists Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Henri Rousseau, as well as the Fauves Matisse and Derain. In 1908, she entered a marriage of convenience with German art dealer Wilhelm Uhde, which gave her access to her dowry and provided Uhde with cover for his homosexuality.

Through Uhde’s gallery, she gained entry into the art world and benefited from his connections. In early 1909, she met Robert Delaunay, whose mother was a regular visitor to Uhde’s gallery. They became lovers that April, and she divorced Uhde in August 1910. Pregnant, she married Robert on 15 November 1910; their son Charles was born on 18 January 1911.

The couple lived on an allowance from Sonia’s aunt in St. Petersburg. She later said of Robert, “In Robert Delaunay I found a poet. A poet who wrote not with words but with colours.”

Orphism (1911–1913)

In 1911, Sonia made a patchwork quilt for Charles’s crib, now in the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris. She described it as inspired by Ukrainian peasant fabrics, and its geometry and colour seemed to evoke cubist ideas. This work marked her shift away from perspective and naturalism. Around the same time, cubist works were being shown in Paris, and Robert was studying Michel Eugène Chevreul’s colour theories.

Together, they called their experiments with colour in art and design simultanéisme—where one design affects another when placed side by side, similar to Pointillism’s optical mixing. Her first large-scale painting in this style was Bal Bullier (1912–13), known for its colour and movement, followed by her Simultaneous Contrasts series. The poet and critic Guillaume Apollinaire coined the term Orphism for their version of Cubism in 1913.

That year, Sonia met poet Blaise Cendrars, whose work gave her a shock. She illustrated his poem La prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France with a two-metre-long accordion-folded book that merged text and design using simultaneous principles. Sold mostly by subscription, it caused a stir among Paris critics. The book was shown at the Autumn Salon in Berlin in 1913 alongside paintings and applied artworks like dresses; Paul Klee was reportedly so impressed by her use of squares in the binding that they became a lasting feature in his own work.

Spanish and Portuguese years (1914–1920)

In 1914, the Delaunays travelled to Spain, staying with friends.