Sonia Delaunay. Authentication, certificates of authenticity and expert appraisals.

Sonia Delaunay (Сонья Терк-Делоне)
(1870-1943)

Think that you may own a painting by Sonia Delaunay? We authenticate, appraise, research and issue certificates of authenticity (COA) and provide consultations for all paintings by Sonia Delaunay.

The work of Sonia Delaunay may be hard for some authenticators to distinguish. In many cases, her style was very similar to that of her husband, fellow painter Robert Delaunay. The two in fact worked side by side, so naturally, their styles complemented one another. In some cases it is nearly impossible to tell which Delaunay created which painting, but a trained and educated eye can pick out the work from either husband or wife.

Disk Composition

Electric Prisms, 1914, Pompidou Center, Paris

Sonia Delaunay was born in the Ukraine, and like Robert, Sonia was raised by her uncle at a young age. She was adopted by wealthy family members and traveled often as a child, and enrolled in art school in St. Petersburg at the age of 16. She was eventually sent to Germany to continue her art studies at the Karlsruhe Academy of Fine Arts.

Yellow Nude

Delaunay finally moved to Paris in 1905 to pursue her art career. Though she was married to a German art dealer at the time she met Robert Delaunay, the two began a relationship and were married in 1910. Together they created a whole new arena of Abstract and Cubist art that infused color, motion and geometry.

Flamenco Singers, 1915

While her husband remained focused on his painting, Sonia delved into the world of fashion and textiles during the First World War. Her take on high fashion included lyrical pieces that were full of movement—an inspiration from her themes as a painter. Many of Sonia’s compositions mirrored contemporary fashion patterns of today and were always bright, colorful and geometric.

Fabric Pattern, 1928

Fabric Pattern

Composition 34, 1930

Composition 31, 1930

Composition 12, 1930

By the 1930s, Sonia returned to painting, which she would continue even after her husbands death in 1941, though she produced little work from then until 1950. Even after she began to work again, her later paintings gained little interest, though this was a very prolific period for her. In 1968 she donated a number of her husbands and her own works to the National Art Museum in Paris, perhaps in hope of regaining notoriety.

Composition

Even though Sonia Delaunay may have been seen by some as following in her husbands footsteps, she made great strides on her own as an artist. In fact, Sonia was the first woman to ever have her work exhibited in the Louvre during her lifetime, a great honor for any artist. During her lifetime, she often was invited to lecture at universities like the Sorbonne, and is even credited as being one of the first to suggest “ready to wear” clothing.

Because Sonia led a very long, very bohemian lifestyle, the possibility of owning one of her pieces is great, as is the possibility of her work being misauthenticated. Today her work is housed all over France and she is remembered as a forerunner in Abstract art and as an inspiration to generations of female artists.

If you suspect you may own a Delaunay, please contact us.

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