Biography

Robert Delaunay was born in Paris into an aristocratic family. Largely self-taught, he was apprenticed to a firm of theatrical set builders from 1902 to 1904. Delaunay's early paintings were in an impressionist style, but in 1906 he began experimenting with the abstract qualities of colour. He was interested in the interaction of colour and movement, partly inspired by the work of Seurat. By 1910 Delaunay's work was showing the influence of cubism and, together with his wife Sonia, he became the leading practitioner of 'Simultanism', an offshoot of cubism and futurism. Delaunay was the first French artist to produce completely abstract pictures, at the end of 1912.