La Prose du transsibérien et de la petite Jehanne de France [Trans-Siberian Prose]
About this artwork
Trans-Siberian Prose, written by the poet Blaise Cendrars and accompanied by Delaunay's abstract composition, was described as 'the first simultanist book'. The poem is a semi-autobiographical account of a train journey across Russia. It is particularly concerned with Cendrars's thoughts, as they flash backward and forward, evoking memories of Paris and his love for a young French prostitute. Instead of illustrating the text, Delaunay wanted to find a visual equivalent for the way it evokes patterns of thought. The 'book' comprises four joined sheets of paper folded into a hand-painted wallet. An edition of 150 had been planned which, laid end to end, would have equalled the height of the Eiffel Tower – envisaged by Delaunay as the archetypal emblem of modernity. However, only about sixty were made. Although each copy looks like an original painting, the colours were in fact applied through a stencil (pochoir), making each example virtually identical.
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title:La Prose du transsibérien et de la petite Jehanne de France [Trans-Siberian Prose]
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accession number:GMA 2199
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materials:Pochoir and text on paper in hand-coloured leather folder; with separate pochoir announcement of the edition
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date created:1913
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measurements:Open 199.00 x 35.50 cm; announcement 9.10 x 34.00 cm (framed: 232.50 x 47.00 x 8.50 cm)
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credit line:Purchased 1980
Sonia Delaunay
Sonia Delaunay
Sonia Terk was born in the Ukraine but left for St Petersburg at an early age before moving to Paris where she spent most of her working life. Along with her husband Robert Delaunay, whom she married in 1910, she was a leading practitioner of what became known as 'Simultanism',…