Many of the female artists we have shared on Paris History Avec a Hemingway on La Vie Creative Podcast have been hidden behind their male contemporaries. Sonia Delaunay is just as well known as her husband Robert, but there was a whole side to her art that I had never noticed before.
Sonia Stern born November 14, 1885 in the Ukraine. Her parents were working class and at 5 years old her mother gave her up for adoption to her wealthy uncle Henri Terk. Henri showed the young Sonia a life of art and culture and exposed her to an education she would not have received from her working class parents. At 18 she was fluent in four languages and was off to the Academy of Fine arts in Karlsruhe, Germany in 1904.
The next year she was in Paris at the Academie de la Palette. The same year Wilhelm Uhde arrived in Paris from Germany and opened a gallery on Rue Notre Dame des Champs and purchased his first Picasso and built a collection and circle of friends that would include Sonia. In 1908 she and Wilhelm married, a marriage of convenience between friends. Sonia wanted to avoid returning to Russia and Wilhelm needed to conceal his homosexuality. That same year she met French artist Robert Delaunay.
On November 15, 1910 Robert and Sonia married but she and Wilhelm remained close for the rest of their lives. Sonia had already begun painting and exhibiting at the Salon and the couple now influenced and inspired each other as a force few had seen in Paris. Sonia was constantly looking for other ways to share her art. She moved from the canvas to every other form of art she could find.
Her focus would turn to home furnishings, fabric, clothing and even cars. During WWI while in Spain she opened Casa Sonia, selling her fabrics and home goods and opened 4 locations. In 1920 the Delaunay’s returned to Paris and opened another store, Maison Sonia and focused all her time on home decor even taking on clients as an interior decorator. Their new home at 19 Boulevard Malesherbes was completely furnished in her own designs.
The couple gladly worked together with a few of the biggest names in ballet from Spain to Paris. Robert would design the sets and Sonia the costumes. Robert kept his mind on the canvas while he encouraged all of her ideas. Their style was born in Cubism and moved through Fauvism until they created a style all their own. Coined by friend Guillaume Appolinair, Orphism was their own bringing back all the colors to the canvas from the monochromatic world of Cubism.
In 1940 they fled Paris for Montpellier and on October 25, 1941 Robert lost his battle with lung cancer. Sonia for the next ten years made it her mission to share his legacy with the world. Writing books and putting together exhibitions from Paris to New York. Many of the gallery owners wanted to feature her work as much as Roberts and her art spread just as fast.
Early in her time in Paris, she spent time inside the Musée du Louvre. While most of the greats were inspired by the masters, she was drawn to the jewelry of Egypt and Messopotamia. In 1964 she was given the first living female artist exhibition inside the walls of the museum that inspired her. Even Picasso didn’t exhibit in the Louvre until 1971.
On December 5, 1979 at the age of 94 she passed away at her home at 16 Rue de Saint Simon. Today her colorful legacy is left in museums around the world, many times next to her beloved Robert.
Hear her entire story today at La Vie Creative Podcast - Paris History Avec a Hemingway.
