| Robert Delaunay | |
|---|---|
Simultaneous Windows on the City, 1912, by Robert Delaunay, Hamburger Kunsthalle |
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| Born | 12 April 1885 Paris, France |
| Died | 25 October 1941 (aged 56) Montpellier, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Field | Painting |
| Movement | Orphism, Cubism, Expressionism |
| Influenced by | Pont-Aven School |
| Influenced | Sonia Delaunay |
Robert Delaunay (12 April 1885 – 25 October 1941) was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstract, reminiscent of Paul Klee. His key influence related to bold use of colour, and a clear love of experimentation of both depth and tone.
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Robert Delaunay was born in Paris, the son of George Delaunay and countess Berthe Félicie de Rose. While he was a child, Delaunay's parents divorced, and he was raised by his mother's sister Marie and her husband Charles Damour, in La Ronchère near Bourges. When he failed his final exam and said he wanted to become a painter, his uncle in 1902 sent him to Ronsin's atelier for decorative arts in Belleville.[1] Aged 19 he left Ronsin to focus entirely on painting and contributed six works to the Salon des Indépendants in 1904.[2] He traveled to Brittany where he was influenced by the group of Pont-Aven and in 1906 contributed works he painted in Brittany to the 22nd Salon des Indépendants, where he met Henri Rousseau.[2]
In 1908, after a term in the military working as a regimental librarian, he met Sonia Terk, who he later married, though at the time she was married to a German art dealer who she would soon divorce. In 1909, Delaunay began to paint a series of studies of the city of Paris and the Eiffel Tower. The following year, he married Terk, and the couple settled in a studio apartment in Paris, where their son Charles was born in January 1911. At the invitation of Wassily Kandinsky, Delaunay joined The Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter), a Munich-based group of abstract artists, in 1911, and his art took a turn for the abstract.
With Apollinaire, Robert travels to Berlin in January 1913 for an exhibition of his work at Galerie Der Sturm. On their way back to Paris, the two stay with August Macke in Bonn, and Macke introduces Max Ernst to them.[3] When his painting La ville de Paris is rejected by the Armory Show as being too big[4] he instructs Samuel Halpert to remove all his works from the show.[2]
At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 Sonia and Robert were staying in Fontarabie in Spain. They decided not to return to France and settled in Madrid. In August 1915 they moved to Portugal where they shared a home with Samuel Halpert and Eduardo Viana.[5] With Viana and their friends Amadeo de Souza Cardoso (whom the Delaunays had already met in Paris) and José de Almada Negreiros they discussed an artistic partnership.[2][6] First declared a deserter, Robert was declared unfit for military duty at the French consulate in Vigo on June 13, 1916.[2]
The Russian Revolution brought an end to the financial support Sonia received from her family in Russia, and a different source of income was needed. In 1917 the Delaunays met Sergei Diaghilev in Madrid. Robert designed the stage for his production of Cleopatra (costume design by Sonia Delaunay). Robert Delaunay illustrates Tour Eiffel for Vicente Huidobro.[2]
Paul Poiret refused a business partnership with Sonia in 1920, citing as one of the reasons her marriage to a deserter.[7] The Der Sturm gallery in Berlin showed works by Sonia and Robert from their Portuguese period the same year.[2][8]
After the war, in 1921, they returned to Paris. Delaunay continued to work in a mostly abstract style. During the 1937 World Fair in Paris, Delaunay participated in the design of the railway and air travel pavilions. When World War II erupted, the Delaunays moved to the Auvergne, in an effort to avoid the invading German forces. Suffering from cancer, Delaunay was unable to endure being moved around, and his health deteriorated. He died from cancer on 25 October 1941 in Montpellier at the age of 56. His body was reburied in 1952 in Gambais.[2]
Robert Delaunay's works can be found in museums around the world:
The Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris, the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum (Spain), Kunstmuseum Basel (Switzerland), the National Galleries of Scotland, the New Art Gallery (Walsall, England), Palazzo Cavour (Turin, Italy), the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Venice), National Museum of Serbia, Van Abbemuseum.
The Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, New York), the Art Institute of Chicago, the Columbus Museum of Art, the Berkeley Art Museum, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Guggenheim Museum (New York City), the Honolulu Academy of Arts, the Museum of Modern Art (New York City), the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), the Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, TX), the San Diego Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art
The National Gallery of Victoria (Australia), the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art (Japan).