Untitled 1930

Untitled (1929) and Untitled (1930) were painted during, what would turn out to be, a dynamic decade for Sonia Delaunay. Having lived on the Iberian peninsula (moving between Spain and Portugal) during World War I, Sonia Delaunay (together with husband Robert and their son Charles) returned to Paris permanently in 1921 where they moved into Boulevard Malesherbes 19. The war hade taken its toll on the Delaunay family’s finances and the Russian Revolution had brought an end to the financial support that Delaunay received from her family back in Russia. The Delaunays’ most acute financial problems were solved, however, when they sold Henri Rousseau’s (1844 - 1910) La Charmeuse de serpents (The Snake Charmer) to Jacques Doucet (1853–1929, French fashion designer and art collector. He is known for his elegant dresses, made with flimsy translucent materials in superimposing pastel colors). La Charmeuse de serpents (The Snake Charmer) (1907, oil on canvas, 169 x 189.5 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris) was originally commissioned by Robert Delaunay’s mother, Berthe, Comtesse de Delaunay, as Rousseau’s first large commission and was exhibited in the 1907 Salon d’Automne (Autumn Salon). After having been in the Doucet collection, 1922 - 1936, it became part of the Louvre collections (promised by Doucet in 1925) in 1937. To supplement the income from the sale of the painting Sonia Delaunay also 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.

In 1925 Delaunay registered the brand name Simultané in the US and France, launching the fashion house Maison Sonia which specialized in the sale of fashion, fabrics, carpets and furniture. From its beginnings as a theory of colour contrasts, Simultanism evolved into a method of artistic production and more broadly signified the polymorphism of Delaunay’s practice. Her customers included luminaries such as Nancy Cunard (1896 – 1965, British writer, heiress and political activist. Born into the British upper class she devoted much of her life to fighting racism and fascism and became a muse to some of the 20th century’s most distinguished writers and artists, including Ezra Pound and Tristan Tzara —who were among her lovers—as well as Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Constantin Brâncusi and Man Ray), Gloria Swanson (1899 – 1983, American actress. She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most famously for her 1950 turn in Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, which also earned her a Golden Globe Award) and Gabrielle Dorziat (1880 – 1979, French stage and film actress. Fashion trend setter in Paris who helped popularize the designs of Coco Chanel). At the groundbreaking Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes (International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts) in 1925, Jacques Heim (1899 - 1967, French fashion and costume designer) and Delaunay set up a Simultané boutique on Pont Alexandre III. There she met the owner of the Amsterdam luxury department store Metz & Co for whom she was to design fabrics until the 1960s.

Sonia designed costumes for two films: Le Vertige directed by Marcel L’Herbier (1888 - 1979) and Le p’tit Parigot, directed by Réne Le Somptier (1884 - 1950) and designed some furniture for the set of the 1929 film Parce que je t’aime. During this period, she also designed haute couture textiles for Robert Perrier (1898 - 1987), while participating actively in his artistic salon, R-26. Around this time, in 1927, Delaunay also gave a lecture, on the influence of painting on fashion, at the Sorbonne in Paris:

If there are geometric forms, it is because these simple and manageable elements have appeared suitable for the distribution of colors whose relations constitute the real object of our search, but these geometric forms do not characterize our art. The distribution of colors can be effected as well with complex forms, such as flowers, etc. […] only the handling of these would be a little more delicate.

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. She said ‘the depression liberated her from business’.

Provenance

GíoMARCONI, Milan, Italy.

Firestorm Foundation (acquired from the above).

Copyright Firestorm Foundation