Sonia Delaunay

Galerie der Sturm (Herwarth Walden), Berlin (acquired directly from the artist)
Thence by descent (and sold: Sotheby’s, London, December 5, 1973, lot 72)
Private Collection, Europe (acquired at the above sale)
Sale: Sotheby’s, New York, May 2, 1996, lot 197
Acquired at the above sale

Paris, Musée d’art et histoire, Sonia Delaunay, 1964, no. 67

Executed on cream wove paper, laid down on canvas. The surface is stable and nicely textured. Some creases and tears to the paper inherent to the artist's process scattered throughout. There is a thick varnish which is slightly dirty. Under UV light some scattered small spots of old retouching fluoresce faintly, notably around the perimeter of the work. This work is in fair condition but would benefit from a clean and some sensitive minimizing of existing retouching.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Sonia Terk met Robert Delaunay in Paris in the early months of 1909. Both emerging artists, the two were immediately drawn to one another and the three decades that followed were ones of unparalleled artistic collaboration. Stanley Baron writes, "All the evidence implies that the thirty years they spent together, often working side by side, continually exchanging views and ideas, and feeding each other's talent, were filled with a sense of rare unity. It is all the more extraordinary because their heritage and background were in only a few respects comparable; they seemed, all the same, to complement each other basically, to fulfill each other's needs, and to harmonize to a remarkable extent their ideas about the nature of art and their painting" (Stanley Baron, Sonia Delaunay: The Life of an Artist, London, 1995, p. 19).

The present lot exemplifies Sonia Delaunay's work in the mid-1910s, when she was transitioning from figurative imagery to the purely abstract. Indeed, the broad and richly vibrant swaths of color prefigure her later oeuvre, including the textile designs she went on to create in the 1920s.

There is a preparatory study for this work in the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.