Sonia Delaunay: The Life of an Artist (1995)

Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979) was a woman of many talents – an innovative artist and a trend-setting textile and fashion designer. This volume, which was written with full access to her journals, sketchbooks, and other personal records, and includes some 200 illustrations, many never before published, traces Delaunay’s life beginning with her childhood in Russia and art studies in Germany. She moved to Paris in 1905 and immediately felt at home. Once she married, Delaunay kept in the background though she was producing numerous works of art. Her most spectacular work spanned the 1920s and 30s – not only paintings and drawings filled with joyous color, but also bookbindings, tapestries, carpets, and wholly original and exhilarating commercial fabric designs. Here she made the greatest use of her natural flair for color, which also had a profound influence on her husband’s work. No biography of Sonia Delaunay could express her inner character without a generous sampling of her art. This book’s numerous illustrations are drawn from all the areas in which she was so productive, and include many personal photographs as well.