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 Sonia Delaunay was a true Renaissance woman of many talents and aspirations. Although she found incredible successes in her life as a wife, mother, socialite, businesswoman and artist, she often lived in the shadow of her husband, Robert Delaunay. It was only decades after her husband’s death that Sonia Delaunay acquired the attention and appreciation that she fully deserved. As a vanguard of the modern female artist movement, Sonia exerted an influence upon the world of art and culture that remains unforgettable and momentous.
Sonia Delaunay was born as Sarah Stern on November 14, 1885, in a small Ukrainian town called Gradizhsk. As a little child, Sonia loved her father immensely and hated her mother just as strongly. She was impressed by the fortitude, honesty and calmness of her father, who worked as a hard laborer in a nail factory. On the other hand, her mother, an incessant complainer, irked the future artist. The general likes and dislikes Sonia found in her parents would greatly influence her own personality development later on in life, even though she was separated from both her father and her mother at the age of five when she was adopted by her uncle Henri Terk. Henri was an auspicious lawyer in St. Petersburg and was married to a relatively powerful wife named Anna. The affluent Jewish couple adopted the child in 1890 and renamed her Sonia Terk. In St. Petersburg, Sonia lived in the Terks’ beautiful home, furnished with her uncle’s formal studies and reproductions of famous paintings; she also received the best education money could buy. Every summer, the Terks traveled around Europe, staying at their Finnish country home and visiting the most prominent art galleries and museums on the continent. Thus, Sonia developed a taste for the arts at quite an early age.
Sonia did not receive formal artistic training until she was 16, when she was enrolled in one of St. Petersburg’s most respected secondary schools. There, her art teacher urged the Terks to send the precocious Sonia to Germany so that she could study art more seriously. Sonia finished her secondary school studies at the age of 18 and immediately entered the Karlsruhe Academy of Fine Arts. The Terks, aware that Sonia would be alone and independent for the most part, preferred to school her in Karlsruhe rather than in Munich so that Sonia could be close to extended family members. From 1903 to 1905, Sonia studied under a strict professor who helped her develop a strong stylistic foundation. In 1905, Sonia left for Paris, the center for arts and entertainment, and would rarely return to Russia thereafter.
Sonia loved life in Paris -- the excitement, the experimentation, the creativity. At first, she roomed with four other Russian girls in a pension on rue Campagne Premier. Every night, the girls entertained large parties of friends. In addition to having an active social life, Sonia had a serious academic career at the Académie de la Palette in Montparnasse. However, she grew to dislike the harsh, critical teaching style used by her professors and decided to paint on her own for the most part. Her paintings at this time, such as Finnish Landscape (1906) and Three Nudes (1908), were heavily influenced by Van Gogh, Gauguin and Matisse, and it is obvious in these paintings that Sonia was struggling to find her own style.
Sonia soon came into contact with Wilhem Uhde, an influential art dealer and collector. He was an outgoing and charismatic man of bourgeois upbringing, and was thus able to penetrate Parisian art circles quite effortlessly. When Sonia met Uhde, he had already established an impressive art collection of Fauvist works. Sonia was immediately drawn to Uhde, particularly to his knowledge of modern art. On December 5, 1908, the two were married unexpectedly in a civil ceremony in London and had a brief honeymoon at the Bucklers Hotel. Ultimately, however, their marriage appears to have been loveless and based only upon intellectual similarities and social usefulness. Their marriage of convenience allowed Sonia to remain in Paris in spite of pressure from her family to return to Russia, while it allowed Uhde to hide his homosexuality. Sonia further benefited from the marriage through Uhde’s power in the art world. He housed solo shows of her early Parisian artwork and introduced her to the artistic elite. Nonetheless, Sonia still had not defined her personal style and continued to mimic the styles of the masters.
In 1909, Sonia met Robert Delaunay and the two became lovers shortly thereafter. The two had numerous similarities, such as having been brought up by rich extended relatives. Most of all, though, they shared a comparable love for art. Uhde and Sonia divorced in 1910, and Sonia immediately married Robert. The Delaunays’ son Charles was born just two months after their wedding. The family ate, drank and breathed art, exchanging ideas, working next to one another, and constructively criticizing each other’s work. The Delaunays lived well beyond their means and entertained large groups of friends, spending money they never had. Every Sunday, their home became an open house to young avant-garde artists.
Sonia Delaunay never separated the decorative arts from the fine arts, and she gave as much attention to the design of furniture around the home as she did to large canvasses. Her talent was completely instinctive, as Sonia -- for her own amusement -- created numerous everyday trinkets of contrasting and complementary colors for their home. Sonia also became interested in dressmaking. She used random scraps of material in adventurous combinations for her family’s clothing, although she was not initially interested in the fashion world. Around this time, Sonia became obsessed with color. Her paintings explored the power, versatility and vibrancy of colors. Furthermore, she encouraged Robert to paint with color, as many of his paintings had become more and more monochromatic.
Throughout their marriage and even after Robert’s death, Sonia put herself and her needs in the background, emphasizing those of her husband. Robert became so obsessed with painting that he neglected to take care of himself and his son. In addition, his temper was also hard to control. Nonetheless, Sonia loved Robert unconditionally, and she kept quiet about these dissatisfactions. Sadly, the family was temporarily separated soon after Charles’ birth when their son became ill. Sonia moved with Charles to Nice to stay with relatives, and then moved to Normandy. Alone, Robert and Sonia were able to study one another’s work. By the time the two were reunited, their artwork had become extremely abstract.
In 1912, the Delaunays’ close friend Guillame Apollinaire came to live in their studio. Apollinaire had undergone trial for the disappearance of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre and sought refuge in the Delaunays’ home. Sonia and Robert defended their friend earnestly throughout the whole process. Apollinaire was one of the most devoted fans of the Delaunays’ artwork and had termed their interpretation of Cubist style “Orphism.”
In 1914, Sonia was persuaded by a friend to move the family to Madrid. There, their son Charles caught typhoid fever. Robert had little talent as a father, so Sonia was left to care for Charles herself. To reconnect, the couple took a seaside vacation together when Charles was better. Afterwards, Sonia returned to Paris to prepare their apartment. However, when she went back to Madrid for her family, she found Robert again totally immersed in his work and captivated by the Iberian landscape. Nonetheless, the Spanish heat was too intense, and the Delaunays decided to move instead to coastal Portugal so that Robert could continue his art in cooler surroundings. Sonia immediately fell in love with all of Portugal and began painting day into night. As seen in paintings such as Disk (1916), the vibrant colors and light of the Iberian Peninsula had captivated her as well, and she was the happiest she had ever been.
In 1921, the Delaunays returned to Paris. Soon after their return, Sonia began working with Dada propagandist Tristan Tzara on fashion pieces and fabric designs. Together, the two created the famous “poem-dresses” and the costumes for Tzara’s play Coeur à Gaz. Sonia was gaining worldwide attention with her fabrics of geometric designs. Even Hollywood actresses were buying her designs, thus funding the Delaunay lifestyle. Delaunay’s artistry had turned into a business enterprise, and her apartment became a boutique, fashion studio and fabric house. In 1925, Sonia featured her fashion designs in the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs. Sonia also gave an impressive lecture at the Sorbonne on the influence of painting on clothing designs. In this lecture, Sonia also introduced the novel idea of prêt-à-porter clothing and other newfound freedoms in women’s fashion.
In the 1930s, the Great Depression put Sonia’s life on hold. The demand for fine art was dwindling, and the Delaunay family could not depend on painting for income. Sonia saw this as an incredible opportunity to withdraw from her artistic career and encouraged Robert to do the same. The two wasted away their days enjoying one another’s company and living a carefree lifestyle. By the end of the 1930s, they faced financial failure and once again had to promote their artwork to support their lifestyle. Both Sonia and Robert’s artwork was featured in a myriad of exhibitions towards the end of this decade.
The 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans La Vie Moderne showcased some of Sonia’s best work. For two years, Sonia worked on the decoration of two exhibition buildings, though she threatened to withdraw her name from the Exposition contract after several disputes with Félix Aublet, the decorator in charge. Nevertheless, the Exposition works were eventually displayed and garnered much money for the Delaunays. A few months after the Exposition, Sonia suffered a severe asthma attack and was informed that she had emphysema. The news had no effect on her life, however, and she continued to work just as hard as ever, becoming even more dedicated to abstract art.
In 1941, Robert died. Immediately after his death, Sonia organized retrospectives of his work as a tribute to his life. To some, it seemed as though she kept herself alive by keeping Robert’s memory alive. To finance this expedition, she sold most of her major possessions and rented out her apartment in Mougins. Sonia lived instead in random hotels and in friends’ homes, selling Robert’s paintings now and then if she could. When Sonia returned to Paris in January of 1945, she was about 60 years old and depressed. Her apartment in Paris was a mess, her health was in shambles, and her financial situation was tenuous. Charles, who had experienced much success with the Parisian radio scene, constantly criticized his mother for her reckless spending habits. Furthermore, she was a bit disillusioned by the young Parisian artists who in her opinion lacked a necessary spirituality. Although she enjoyed their company, she had little faith in their artwork, which was quite academic and theoretical rather than instinctual. In 1946, Sonia wanted only to be alone for a bit in the town of Gambais. She would not produce any artwork again until 1950, when she collaborated with Hans Arp and Alberto Magnelli on a lithograph project. During the 1950s, Sonia began to feel a bit overlooked, for her artwork had received little to no attention. Having come to the conclusion that Robert’s work had gained enough notice, she decided to concentrate on her own artwork. She painted prolifically during this period, pumping out and exhibiting numerous gouache paintings. In the 1960s, she again went through bouts of depression, as many of her friends had been dying. She was faced with bleak loneliness and trusted nobody.
In 1964, Sonia, almost 80 years old, met the writer/poet/art-enthusiast/editor Jacques Damase at the Opéra in Paris. She felt a strangely comfortable attraction to Damase and confided in him her deepest thoughts. She went to London to see him in 1965, and the two soon began to see each other regularly. Following her maternal instincts, she wished to cure his drinking and emotional problems. Similarly, Damase looked after Sonia, providing her with a selfless and supportive friendship. Damase helped coordinate Sonia’s most important retrospective, a full-scale tribute to her works at the Musée National d’Art Moderne. Sonia had finally gained the respect she was in search of and truly enjoyed the fame. For the rest of her life, Sonia lived in the lap of luxury, wearing the finest clothing and traveling to the most cultured places. On December 5, 1979, Sonia died peacefully in her studio.
Sonia Delaunay never stood on the shoulders of her husband or friends. By making a well-respected name for herself and by herself, Sonia also made a name for women artists in general. Despite being faced with endless adversity, Sonia never once deserted her position in life as mother, wife or artist. Her fortitude, combined with her incredible skill, allowed her to become one of the most esteemed artists in modern history.
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