Sonia Delaunay

Sonia Delaunay
(French/Ukranian, 1885–1979)

Self-Portrait, 1916
wax on paper signed Sonia Delaunay and dated (lower left); numbered 361 (lower right)
13 ¼ x 8 ½ inches.
Property from the Collection of Georgette D'Angelo, Glencoe, Illinois Fine Art signed Sonia Delaunay and dated (lower left); numbered 361 (lower right)

This lot is included in the archives of Richard Riss.

Provenance:
B.C. Holland, Inc., Chicago
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Exhibited:
Stockholm, Nya Konstgalleriet, Exposition, March 23 - April 14, 1916 (also traveled to Oslo, Galerie Blomqvist, April 16 - May 14, 1916)

Lot note:
In 1915, Sonia Delaunay moved to Lisbon, Portugal with her artist husband, Robert Delaunay, and their son Charles. The Delaunays were enthusiastic about the medieval architecture, the colorful folk arts, and rugged landscape of the country. Sonia wrote: "The light of Portugal was not violent, but exalted every color" (quoted in A.A. Cohen, Sonia Delaunay, New York, 1975, p. 67). In 1916, an exhibition of Sonia's and Robert's paintings was planned for the Nya Konstgalleriet, Stockholm. Many of Robert's paintings were already committed to other shows, and as a result he had to drop out. The occasion was then devoted exclusively to Sonia's work, which was her first major solo exhibition. For the exhibit, she created a series of studies of self-portraits to be used on the covers of the exhibition catalogue, of which the present work is an example. The self-portrait shows a woman's head with a hat, executed in the artist's familiar broken color circles.