Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979)

Danseuse espagnole

Details

Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979)
Danseuse espagnole
signed and numbered 'Sonia Delaunay 1134' (lower left)
watercolor over pencil on paper laid down on board
12 1/8 x 9 1/8 in. (30.9 x 23.2 cm.)
Painted in 1917

Provenance

Estate of the artist.
Charles Delaunay (acquired from the above).
Forum Fine Art, Zurich.
B.C. Holland, Inc., Chicago.
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1989.

Exhibited

Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute; Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts; Atlanta, The High Museum of Art; New York, The Grey Art Gallery, New York University; The Art Institute of Chicago, and Montreal, Musée d'Art Contemporain, Sonia Delaunay: A Retrospective, February 1980-May 1981, p. 172, no. 113 (illustrated). Paris, Artcurial, L'Avant-Garde au Féminin, May-July 1983, p. 61, no. 24 (illustrated in color, p. 24).
The Art Institute of Chicago, Graphic Modernism, Selections from the Francey and Dr. Martin L. Gecht Collection, November 2003-January 2004, p. 55, no. 45 (illustrated in color).

Lot Essay

Sonia and Robert Delaunay, with their son Charles, were on holiday in Spain when the First World War began in August 1914. Charles became ill; the Delaunays moved to Madrid to care for him, and thereafter spent 1915-1916 in Portugal. As a result of the 1917 revolution in Russia, Sonia lost her independent income, and she and her family returned to Madrid, where she opened the "Casa Sonia," an interior design store. She provided decorations for the Petit Casino in Madrid. The artist employed in this depiction of a flamenco dancer her signature banded color disks, which suggest the wild swirl of skirts and the dramatic gesturing of the dancer's raised arms as she clacks her castanets.

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