Fabric Designs
SONIA DELAUNAY
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We are only at the beginning of the study of these new colour relationships, still full of mysteries to unravel, which are at the base of a modern vision. There is no going back to the past. Sonia Delaunay, The Influence of Painting on the Art of Clothing, Lecture at the Sorbonne, 1927
SONIA DELAUNAY Sonia Delaunay (1885 -1979) was a modern artist and designer who merged art and everyday life. Although she is now known primarily as an abstract painter and colourist she applied her talent for colour composition to all areas of visual expression; interiors, fashion and textiles, books, graphics, theatre and film. No article of clothing, furnishing or interior escaped her notion of ‘colour as the skin of the world’. Born in 1885 into a poor Jewish family in Ukraine she was subsequently adopted by her wealthy Saint Petersburg uncle and enjoyed a privileged upbringing that introduced her to art and culture around Europe. In 1905 she moved to Paris to study art where she was heavily influenced by the Fauves. It was here in 1907 that she met her husband and fellow artist Robert Delaunay. Surrounded by the Parisian avantgarde, Futurism and Cubism, the Delaunays formulated their own principles about colour expressed through simultaneity or the sensation of movement and rhythm when contrasting colours are placed side by side. Orphism was born. The Delaunays were fortunate to be supported by Sonia’s wealthy uncle and able to indulge their creativity but all this changed after the Russian
revolution. When they returned to Paris from Spain in 1921, Sonia realised she would have to support them both and textile and fashion design was the obvious choice. She had already designed costumes for Diaghilev and the Ballet Russe whilst in Madrid and her ‘Simultanéist’ experiments with clothes were popular amongst the Dadaists in Paris at the time. From 1923 she began designing printed fabrics, the so-called ‘tissus simultanés’. They were a logical development from her embroidered and appliqued designs for clothing and in 1925 she was able to open her own business, Maison Delaunay and gradually her fame spread. It was around this time that Sonia met Robert Perrier, a haute-couture textile supplier, songwriter, socialite and art collector. Perrier and his wife Madeleine, by virtue of their diverse connections in haute-couture, were both respected members of the beau monde. Large social gatherings at their home occurred regularly, bringing together eminent artists and designers who would share and discuss their latest works. The Delaunays were most active in introducing artists and poets to the bohemian soirees, dubbed the R-26 Salon.
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ORIGINAL DESIGNS gouache & watercolour
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Sonia worked closely with Robert Perrier, supplying him with designs for major fashion houses and it is these works that are illustrated here. The designs, originally intended for her own fashion garments turned out to be works in their own right, developing a life of their own, with their own use of colour and visual language. When Maison Delaunay closed
in 1935 during the great crash, Sonia returned to painting but continued her fabric designs as a one woman enterprise fulfilling commissions for Perrier, Metz and Co., Libertys and many more. Her designs were not subject to the whims of fashion. They are timeless. She remained a painter, a universal artist who applied her art onto fabrics.
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SONIA DELAUNAY Early Works 1. Design 32, Red and Blue Stripes gouache, 13 x 13 cm, initialled
ÂŁ4000
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verso
2. Squares and Triangles - Fabric Design watercolour, 15 x 12.5 cm
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ÂŁ2000
prices include frame, vat and uk delivery
SONIA DELAUNAY Early Works 3. Variation of Design 555 - Red, Yellow, Green, Blue and Black gouache, 22.3 x 10.2 cm
ÂŁ3000
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4. Geometric Fabric Design gouache, 21 x 20 cm
ÂŁ3500
SONIA DELAUNAY Early Works verso
5. Design 1263 - Red and Blue Flowers on Black gouache and gum arabic, 15 x 13 cm
ÂŁ3000
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6. Green, Black and Blue Border Design watercolour, 19 x 17 cm
ÂŁ3500
SONIA DELAUNAY Early Works 7. White Squares on Dark Navy - Fabric Design gouache and pencil, 10.5 x 9.2 cm
ÂŁ2500
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8. Composition in Red, White and Blue gouache, 16 x 11.5 cm
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ÂŁ3000
prices include frame, vat and uk delivery
SONIA DELAUNAY Early Works 9. Stripes and Spirals - Red, Black, Green and Blue watercolour, 21 x 17 cm
ÂŁ2750
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10. Grey Petals on Black - Fabric Design gouache, 31 x 16.4 cm
ÂŁ4500
verso
SONIA DELAUNAY Early Works verso
11. Design 1445 - Black, White, Blue and Green Triangles gouache, 12 x 14 cm
ÂŁ2500
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12. Five Fabric Designs gouache, 24.5 x 19 cm
ÂŁ4000
SONIA DELAUNAY Early Works verso
13. Design No. 555 - Black, Red, Navy, Olive, Lemon gouache, 15.5 x 7.5 cm
ÂŁ2000
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14. Design C70 'Petals' watercolour and gouache, 32 x 24 cm
ÂŁ4000
SONIA DELAUNAY Early Works verso
15. Design 718 - Red Stripes gouache, 9 x 10 cm
ÂŁ2250
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verso
16. Design 471 - Woven Colours Fabric Design gouache, 10 x 10.3 cm
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ÂŁ2500
prices include frame, vat and uk delivery
SES PEINTURES, SES OBJETS, SES TISSUS SIMULTANÉS, SES MODES hand-coloured pochoir
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17. £950
Delaunay’s greatest professional successes came in the realms of textile, fashion and costume. These Pochoir prints were created in 1925 just after Maison Delaunay was launched in Paris and her inclusion in the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, a celebration of Paris as a capital of art and luxury.
The exploration of how forms and colours interacted and moved in the world was a project to which Sonia Delaunay devoted her entire career. Textiles patterned with modernist, abstract images could shift and flow and reveal new images; the silhouettes of her intricately draped costumes and fashions could act as geometric forms moving in space.
SONIA DELAUNAY Early Works 18. ÂŁ950
These pochoir plates, from a suite published c1925, are hand-coloured through stencils Each print bears a date centred below the image and Delaunay’s signature in facsimile. Paper size is 38 x 56 cm.
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19. £950
20. £950
21. £950
22. £950
SONIA DELAUNAY Early Works
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23. ÂŁ950
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COMPOSITIONS, COULEURS, IDﾃ右S hand-coloured pochoir
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24. ÂŁ495
Created in 1930 when Delaunay was well established as a textile designer, these vibrant pochoir prints show how she continued to explore SimultanĂŠ, the connection between colour and movement. Examples of her work from this period had a powerful effect on Art Deco with their energetic geometric patterning and use of bold colour.
Delaunay always insisted on the highest possible standards in all her manufacturing hence the use of pochoir as a printing process which although more expensive and time consuming gives remarkable colour reproduction.
SONIA DELAUNAY Early Works 25. ÂŁ495
These pochoir prints were published in Paris in 1930. Edition size unknown but thought to be small. Framed size approx 48 x 41 cm. Image sizes vary. Antique white museum quality mount and hand-made oak frame.
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27. £495
26. £495
28. £495
29. £495
SONIA DELAUNAY Early Works
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30. £495
31. £495
SONIA DELAUNAY Early Works 32. ÂŁ495
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For me there was no gap between my painting and what is called my 'decorative work'... it was an extension of my art, it showed me new ways, while using the same method. Sonia Delaunay
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