Sonia Delaunay Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
French, 1885-1979
Pioneering 20th-century abstract artist Sonia Delaunay was known for ignoring the distinction between fine art and applied design. Her body of work encompassed not only paintings and prints but also book illustrations, women’s and men’s fashions, costumes for theater and dance, film sets, wallpaper, furniture and interior decor. More than an expression of her prolific talent, this varied output was her way of erasing the boundary between life and art.
Born Sara Elievna Stern in 1885 to a working-class Jewish family in Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire), she was adopted as a child by a wealthy maternal uncle in St. Petersburg, who saw to her well-rounded education. There, she picked up the nickname Sonia.
At the age of 18, she left Russia for Germany to study painting, and in 1905, she landed in Paris, where she enrolled in art school. She soon dropped out but continued creating art, producing canvases strongly influenced by Fauvism. Following a brief marriage to gallery owner Wilhelm Uhde, she married fellow artist Robert Delaunay (1885–1941) in 1910. After the birth of her son, Charles, in 1911, she crafted a patchwork crib cover that she considered her first truly abstract piece.
No matter the medium, Delaunay’s passion was color. She and her husband were the main exponents of Orphism, a branch of Cubism defined by abstract compositions and bright shades. They saw their creations as experiments in Simultanéisme, or Simultanism, a color theory based on the work of scientist Michel Eugène Chevreul (1786–1889), who studied the ways in which a given hue can look different depending on the ones around it.
The Delaunays noted that certain pairings seemed to generate a vibration in the eye of the beholder. They felt that this movement captured the dynamism of modern urban life. The couple generally expressed the ideas underpinning Simultanism in their work with flat, overlapping panes of color. In fact, Sonia’s cradle cover melded their tenets with the traditions of Russian-peasant patchwork (also a big Constructivist inspiration).
Seeking to integrate Simultanism into all aspects of life, she designed other abstractly patterned furnishings for their home, which had become a gathering place for the avant-garde, and she worked the designs into their clothes, too, which she and Robert would wear throughout the city and to dance halls — behavior that today would likely be described as performance. In addition to performance, Sonia’s work presaged many other avant-garde movements, such as kinetic art and Op art.
After the upheavals of World War I and the 1917 Russian Revolution, Delaunay retooled herself and opened a business. Keeping her devotion to color juxtaposition front and center, she launched a fabric and fashion atelier where she created textiles, wearable pieces, interior decor and furniture, sometimes collaborating with cabinetmaker Adolphe Chanaux.
Clients who may have found an abstract painting intimidating or inaccessible could enjoy the bright pattern on a cloche-and-scarf set Delaunay created or the striped handbag she designed. In this way, she brought her art into their everyday lives. Her colorful abstract design on a textile or rug could very well have been applied to one of her canvases and hung on a wall or vice versa.
While many women artists of the period were herded away from the fine arts and toward crafts (think Anni Albers), Delaunay was able to do it all. And what’s also so appealing about her oeuvre, to contemporary eyes, is the sense that Delaunay pursued everything — be it painting or fashion or costuming or furniture or graphic design — with equal vigor, without making distinctions between mediums.
Find Sonia Delaunay art for sale on 1stDibs.
to
1
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
2
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
59
137
110
94
77
1
1
1
Artist: Sonia Delaunay
Sonia Delaunay - Original Watercolor on paper
By Sonia Delaunay
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Sonia Delaunay - Original Watercolor on paper
Dimensions: 21 x 21 cm.
Authentified by her son Charles Delaunay on the back.
Sonia Delaunay was known for her vivid use of color and her bold, abstract patterns, breaking down traditional distinctions between the fine and applied arts as an artist, designer and printmaker.
Born Sarah Stern on November 14, 1885 in Gradizhsk, Ukraine, she was adopted in 1890 by her maternal uncle, Henri Terk, a lawyer in St. Petersburg, where she grew up, exposed to music and art, and learning several foreign languages. In 1903, she moved to Germany to study drawing with Ludwig Schmidt-Reutler (1863–1909) at the Karlsruhe academy of fine arts; Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951), composer-to-be, was among her classmates there. In 1905, she traveled to Paris where she attended art classes at the Académie de la Palette, learned printmaking from Rudolf Grossman (1889–1941), and met Amédée Ozenfant (1886–1966), André Dunoyer de Segonzac (1884–1974), and Jean-Louis Boussingault (1883–1943). Sonia spent much of her time at exhibitions and galleries in Paris, which showed works by Paul Cézanne, Vincent Van Gogh, Pierre Bonnard, and Edouard Vuillard, as well as Les Fauves, Henri Matisse and André Derain. She did, however, maintain contact with Germany, exhibiting at the Galerie Der Sturm, Berlin, in 1913, 1920 and 1921.
During her first year in Paris, Sonia met the German collector and art-dealer, Wilhelm Uhde (1874–1947), whom she married on December 5, 1908, and whose Montparnasse gallery, the Galerie Notre-Dame des Champs, showed her first solo exhibition. Through Uhde, Sonia encountered many painters, including Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Maurice de Vlaminck, and Robert Delaunay (1885–1941). In 1910, Sonia divorced Uhde by mutual agreement, married Delaunay that same year, and gave birth to their son, Charles, in January 1911.
Together Sonia and Robert Delaunay pursued the study of color, influenced by theories of Michel-Eugène Chevreul (1786–1889). Sonia’s interest in simultaneous contrast, as evidenced in her early collages, book bindings, small painted boxes...
Category
1930s Abstract Geometric Sonia Delaunay Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Avec moi-même - Planche 8
By Sonia Delaunay
Located in New York, US
Plate 8 from the 10-subject album "Avec moi-même" ("With Myself")
On Arches wove paper. A beautiful plate, a small edition of 75, a demanding technique: etching and aquatint, and an...
Category
1970s Abstract Geometric Sonia Delaunay Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Etching, Aquatint
Related Items
"residence" abstract cityscape, colorful rowhouses, geometric, marker, pencil
By Miriam Singer
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This piece titled "residence" is an original artwork made from pencil, maker, acrylic paint collage on panel by Miriam Singer. This piece measures 8"h x 8"w.
Miriam Singer grew up i...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Geometric Sonia Delaunay Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paint, Panel, Permanent Marker, Pencil
Abstract Watercolor N.8 by Dmitry Samygin
By Dmitry Samygin
Located in Paris, FR
Abstract Watercolor N.8 by Dmitry Samygin
Minimalist and geometric paintings.
Technique: Watercolor
Color: Teal blue
Size: H. 35.5 x 27.5 x 0.1 cm
Dmitry Samygin is a Furniture a...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Geometric Sonia Delaunay Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Abstract Geometric Terracotta Jugs, Mid Century Modern Abstracted Still Life
Located in Soquel, CA
Bold mid century modern abstracted pastel on paper still life of several terra cotta jugs and vessels distilled down to their most basic shapes and ar...
Category
1960s Abstract Geometric Sonia Delaunay Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Pastel
$680 Sale Price
20% Off
H 24.25 in W 29.75 in D 1.25 in
Geometric Shapes
By Ben Nicholson
Located in Jerusalem, IL
The idea of Ben Nicholson and his circle was to apply constructivist principles to public and private art. Especially, they were against ornaments and advocated for clean lines. Artworks were created with mathematical precision.
“Geometric shapes...
Category
Mid-20th Century Abstract Geometric Sonia Delaunay Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gouache, C Print
A GARDEN FOR ICARO - Etching on paper signed Gaetano Carboni, Italy 1970
Located in Napoli, IT
Etching on paper, signed Gaetano Carboni
A painter and engraver, Gaetano Carboni was born in 1928 in Ascoli Piceno and, between 1940 and 1950, implemented his first figurative experi...
Category
1970s Abstract Sonia Delaunay Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Etching, Aquatint
Karen Schiff, Field of Sorts III, 2014, Watercolor, Pencil, Graphite
By Karen Schiff
Located in Darien, CT
Karen Schiff is an artist and wordsmith based in New York; she has always been a reader as well as a visual artist. Her drawings, paintings, installations, and performances combine t...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Geometric Sonia Delaunay Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor, Pencil, Graphite
$600
H 5.5 in W 6.75 in
Bountiful
Located in Brooklyn, NY
This black and white abstract drawing features a beautiful floral.
Framed in a vintage gold frame, wired and ready to hang, 11 in. wide x 13 in. high
Category
2010s Abstract Sonia Delaunay Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Archival Ink
Blue
Grey Green Plan: Abstract Geometric Framed Painting in Cool Toned Palette
By Donise English
Located in Hudson, NY
Abstract geometric painting with a cool toned palette of green, blue, and grey with accents of black and white against a sea foam green colored acrylic wash background
"Blue and Grey Green Plan" made by Hudson Valley artists, Donise English, in 2022
Graphite, colored pencil, and acrylic painting on vellum
24 x 18 inches unframed, 31 x 25 x 1.5 with an 8-ply white mat, non-glare plexi, and simple black moulding
Signed, verso
Excellent condition and ready to hang
This abstract geometric painting on vellum was made by Hudson Valley based artist, Donise English, in 2022. The composition begins with a blue green toned background of acrylic wash. A grid of box-like patterns in sky blue, green, grey, and black with white line work are stacked to create an irregular shape or an "imagined city grid", says the artist. The painting on vellum is complemented by a simple black frame with an 8-ply white mat, non-glare plexi, and wire backing. It's in excellent condition and ready to hang.
About the artist:
Donise English emphasizes lines, grids, and fields of subtle color to evoke imagined places and invented structures. While precise lines and straight angles are often associated with themes in architecture and urban planning designs, English conveys a geometric motif guided by intuition rather than a ruler. Variations on grids retain flaws and unmistakable traces of the artists’ hand; her style of draftsmanship shies away from intellectualism and instead makes her compositions feel very personal. A central checkerboard formation floats over a ground of pastel color or washes of grey or cream. Each design is intensely intricate, incorporating gouache, acrylic, pen, graphite, ink and colored pencil. The artist recently retired from her decades career teaching at Marist College and is now devoted full time to her art making.
Artist Statement:
My work is about the way visual diagrams present information that describes how something is made or the way it is. I am interested in drawing and collaging multiple layers of information that refer abstractly to maps, architectural drawings and blueprints or patterns and structures found in such things as roller coasters, power lines and fences. I use gouache and collaged paper in a series of layers that are a visual and ideological response to the previous layer to define my pictorial space. For each piece I create a set of rules to follow about the use of a limited palette, a grid format, opacity of paper and whether a piece may include curving lines or maintain a rectilinear structure.
Artist CV:
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Arts in Painting
Bard College 1986
Bachelor of Science in Art History
State University College at New Paltz 1977
Additional Study: New York Studio School (Drawing Marathons)
Columbia University, School of Architecture
Women’s Studio Workshop
TEACHING
Professor of Studio Art, Department of Art and Art History, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY
Coordinator, Interior Design Program, Florence, Italy campus
1992-present
AWARDS
NYFA Fellowship in Painting 2018
Invitational Award for Outstanding Contemporary Talent,
University of Bridgeport, CT 2000
Purchase Prize, “11th National Juried Exhibition”
College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Baltimore 1999
First Prize, “Women in the Visual Arts ‘95”
Erector Square Gallery, New Haven, CT 1995
Joseph A. Cain Memorial Purchase Award for Sculpture
Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, TX 1994
Honorable Mention, “National Juried Exhibition”
University of Bridgeport, CT 1993
Individual Artists Fellowship in Sculpture
Dutchess Arts Fund 1992/93
Tallix, Morris, Singer Internship in Sculpture
Tallix Foundry, Beacon, NY 1990/91
MEMBERSHIP Royal British Society of Sculptors
SELECTED JURIED/INVITATIONAL EXHIBITIONS
2020
“edu: Art Faculty of the Hudson Valley”, Hudson Valley MOCA, Peekskill, NY
2019
“Contemporary Abstraction”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Mixed Media”, SITE Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2018
“JuxtaPositions”, The Painting Center, New York, NY
“Peculiar Rarities”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
2017
“Interlock: Color and Contrast in Abstraction”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Donise English: Encaustics”, Catskill Art Society, Livingston Manor, NY
2016
“Let’s Stay in Touch”, Howard County Center for the Arts, Ellicott City, MD
“Under, Over, After Over”, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
2015
“Off the Grid”, Arts & Culture Program, Albany International Airport, Albany, NY
“Gridspace”, KMOCA, Kingston, NY
“Abstraction”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Assuming Identity”, NY Institute of Technology, New York, NY
2013
“Modern Artists”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region”, The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY
Stone Canoe/Community Folk Art Center, Syracuse, NY
2012
New York Institute of Technology, New York, NY
“Contemporary Painters (Who Just Happen To Be Women)”,
Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Strange Glue: Collage at 100”, Cambridge School, Weston, MA
“Dear Mother Nature”, Dorsky Museum, SUNY New Paltz, NY
“Fresher Paint”, Rockland Center for the Arts, Nyack, NY
Courthouse Gallery, Lake George Arts Project, Lake George, NY
2011
“Process+Content: Donise English”, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY “Donise English-Paintings”,Orange County Community College,
Newburgh, NY
“Gender Matters/Matters of Gender”, Freedman Gallery,
Albright College, Reading, PA
2010
Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Encaustics: Wax and Image”, Westchester Community College,
White Plains, NY
“Dots, Lines and Figures”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Spring Awakening”, NY Institute of Technology, New York, NY
“Clay City Dreams”, NY Institute of Technology, New York, NY
“Texture,Pattern, Fragment”, Krause Gallery, Moses Brown School,
Providence, RI
2009
“Collage”, NY Institute of Technology, New York, NY
“Working in Wax”, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA
“Encaustic 2009”, College of New Rochelle, NY
“Three Artists”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
“Convergence: The Human Experience”,Howard County Center for the Arts, MD
2008
“Suckers and Biters: Love, Lollipops, and Exquisite Corpse”
Chashama Gallery, New York, NY
Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson NY
2007
“Patterns and Light”, Blue Hill Gallery, Blue Hill, ME
“Suckers and Biters”, AG Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2006
“100 Artists, 100 Watercolors”, Jeannie Freilich Fine Art,
New York, NY
“On/Of Paper”,Kirkland Art Center, Clinton, NY
“The Love Show”, Manchester Community College, Manchester, CT
2005
The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN
“Small Tales”, Valdosta State University, Georgia
National Juried Exhibition,Art Institute and Gallery
Salisbury, MD, Juror: Stephen Haller
“Greed, Envy, Jealousy, Fear”, TSL Warehouse, Hudson, NY
2004
“Women in the Middle: Borders, Barriers, Intersections”
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
“Girl Art Now”,Hera Gallery, Wakefield, RI
3 Person Exhibition, Monterey Peninsula College, Monterey, CA
“The Feminine Eye”, Bradley University, Peoria, IL “Women Painting Women”, McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA “Thought Patterns”, Kent Place Gallery, Summit, NJ “Surface, Matter and Artifice”, Dutchess Community College Art Gallery
Poughkeepsie, NY
2003
“Beefcake/Cheesecake”,Orange County Center for Contemporary Art,
Santa Ana, CA,Juror: Jamie Wilson, Curator
Halpert Bienniel, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC
Juror: Jeff Fleming, Senior Curator, Des Moines Art Center “The Great White Oak”, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY
2002
“Cat Calls”, Red Clay Arts, Brooklyn
“Hudson Valley Regional”, SUNY New Paltz
Juror: Sydney Jenkins, Director, Ramapo College Art Galleries
2001
One-Person Exhibition, Davis and Hall Gallery, Hudson, NY “Beyond the Surface”, Womanmade Gallery, Chicago
One-Person Exhibition, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY
2000
“Vision 2000...
Category
2010s Abstract Geometric Sonia Delaunay Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Canvas, Gouache, Archival Paper, Color Pencil, Graphite
$3,200
H 31 in W 25 in D 1.5 in
Abstract Still Life by Evelyn Mills Cory
Located in Hudson, NY
Abstract Still Life c/1935-1945)
Gouache and watercolor on paper
17 3/4" x 24"
21 1/2" x 27 1/2" x 1 1/4" framed
Signed "E Cory" lower right.
Category
1930s Abstract Geometric Sonia Delaunay Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Watercolor, Gouache
Dorothea Tanning (1910 - 2012) - Etching and aquatint on paper - 1975
By Dorothea Tanning
Located in Varese, IT
Etching and aquatint on paper, edited in 1975.
Limited edition of 100 copies, numbered as 93/100 in lower left corner.
Signed in pencil by artist in lower right corner.
Paper size: ...
Category
1970s Abstract Sonia Delaunay Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Etching, Aquatint
$2,134
H 22.05 in W 27.96 in D 1.58 in
Karen Schiff, Word Snake G, 2014, Watercolor, Gouache, Rag Paper, Pencil
By Karen Schiff
Located in Darien, CT
Karen Schiff is an artist and wordsmith based in New York; she has always been a reader as well as a visual artist. Her drawings, paintings, installations, and performances combine t...
Category
2010s Abstract Geometric Sonia Delaunay Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor, Gouache, Rag Paper, Pencil
$400
H 1.25 in W 8.25 in
Karen Schiff, Word Snake H, 2014, Gouache, Graphite
By Karen Schiff
Located in Darien, CT
Karen Schiff is an artist and wordsmith based in New York; she has always been a reader as well as a visual artist. Her drawings, paintings, installations, and performances combine t...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Geometric Sonia Delaunay Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gouache, Graphite
Previously Available Items
Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979) - hand-signed etching on Arches paper - 1970
By Sonia Delaunay
Located in Varese, IT
etching on Arches paper (with watermark) edited in 1970
Signed in pencil by artist lower right and numbered asa 115/200
Sheet size: 76.5 x 57 cm
Frame size: 85.5 x 66 cm
Excellent c...
Category
1960s Abstract Sonia Delaunay Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Etching
Sonia Delaunay abstract drawings and watercolors for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Sonia Delaunay abstract drawings and watercolors available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of abstract drawings and watercolors to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of orange and other colors. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 1930s and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large Sonia Delaunay abstract drawings and watercolors, so small editions measuring 9 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Irene Zweig, Larry Zox, and John Anderson. Sonia Delaunay abstract drawings and watercolors prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $4,587 and tops out at $4,587, while the average work can sell for $4,587.