Oil on board, framed. French Orphism and Modern Art School. Featuring an abstract composition. Signed Sonia Delaunay on the lower right corner. 27 x 34 cm (10.6 x 13.4 inches), frame: 39.5 x 47 cm (15.6 x 18.5 inches) PROVENANCE: Southern Ontario estate

Sonia Delaunay (Ukrainian-French, 1885-1979) was a multi-disciplinary abstract artist and key figure in the Parisian avant-garde. Alongside her husband, Robert Delaunay, she pioneered the movement Simultanism. Her exploration of the interaction between colours has created a sense of depth and movement throughout her oeuvre. Sonia Delaunay spanned the full arc of the adventure of abstraction in Europe across the first half of the 20th century. One of the early pioneers, she helped to bring art and life together in the period between the First and Second World Wars and continued to champion the cause of abstraction as a universal visual language in the post-war era. As she wrote in her autobiography: We Will Go Right Up to the Sun (Nous irons jusq’au soleil) in 1978, one year before she passed away: ‘What had people been saying about me up to then? - muse of Orphism, decorator, Robert Delaunay’s partner. Then they conceded: "collaborator, continuer…" before admitting that the work existed in its own right." As well as a major retrospective at the Kunstmuseum Bielefeld in 1958, Delaunay was the first living female artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre in 1964. She has also had her work shown at Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris, Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Musee National d’Art Moderne and Tate Modern.

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