French painter, born in Paris. Apprenticed for two years to a theatrical designer, then began to paint. Influenced by Neo-Impressionism 1906-7, afterwards by Cézanne; a friend of Metzinger and the Douanier Rousseau. Series of pictures of 'Saint-Séverin', 'The Eiffel Tower' and 'The City'. Married the painter Sonia Terk in 1910. Exhibited in the Cubist room at the Salon des Indépendants in 1911 with Metzinger, Gleizes, Léger and Le Fauconnier. Started to use pure colours again early in 1912 and at the end of the same year painted his first 'Disc' and 'Circular Forms', his first abstract pictures. First one-man exhibition at the Galeries Barbazanges, Paris, 1912. His work was much admired in Paris by Apollinaire, who gave it the name Orphism, and in Germany by Klee, Macke and Marc. Lived in Spain and Portugal during the First World War; returned to Paris in 1920. After painting various figurative themes such as nude women reading, runners and portraits, he returned in 1930 to complete abstraction and made numerous compositions with circular discs and colour rhythms, sometimes in low relief. Executed with assistants huge panels and coloured reliefs for the Aeronautics pavilion at the 1937 Paris International Exhibition. Died at Montpellier.
Robert-Victor-Félix Delaunay was born on April 12, 1885, in Paris. In 1902, after secondary education, he apprenticed in a studio for theater sets in Belleville. In 1903 he started painting and by 1904 was exhibiting. That year and in 1906 his work was shown at the Salon d’Automne and from 1904 until World War I at the Salon des Indépendants. Between 1905 and 1907 Delaunay became friendly with Henri Rousseau and Jean Metzinger and studied the color theories of Michel-Eugène Chevreul. During these years, he painted in a Neo-Impressionist manner; Paul Cézanne’s work also influenced Delaunay around this time. From 1907 to 1908 he served in the military in Laon, and upon returning to Paris he had contact with the Cubists. The period of 1909–10 saw the emergence of Delaunay’s personal style; he painted his first Eiffel Tower in 1909. In 1910 Delaunay married the painter Sonia Terk, who became his collaborator on many projects.
Delaunay’s participation in exhibitions in Germany and his association with advanced artists working there began in 1911, the year Vasily Kandinsky invited him to participate in the first Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) exhibition at Heinrich Thannhauser’s Moderne Galerie in Munich. At this time he became friendly with Guillaume Apollinaire, Albert Gleizes, and Henri Le Fauconnier. In 1912 Delaunay’s first solo show took place at the Galerie Barbazanges, Paris; and he began his Windows pictures. In 1913 Delaunay painted his Circular Form, or Disc, pictures.
From 1914 to 1920 Delaunay lived in Spain and Portugal and became friends with Sergei Diaghilev, Leonide Massine, Diego Rivera, and Igor Stravinsky. He designed decor for the Ballets Russes in 1918. By 1920 he had returned to Paris, where in 1922 an exhibition of his work was held at Galerie Paul Guillaume. He began his second Eiffel Tower series in that same year. In 1924 he undertook his Runner paintings and in 1925 executed frescoes for the Palais de l’Ambassade de France at the Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs in Paris. In 1937 he was commissioned to decorate the Palais des Chemins de Fer and Palais de l’Air at the Paris World’s Fair. His last works were decorations for the sculpture hall of the Salon des Tuileries in 1938. Delaunay died on October 25, 1941, in Montpellier, France.
French painter Robert Delaunay was one of the first artists to introduce vibrant color into Cubism, trend eventually known as Orphism. An important figure in 20th century art, Delaunay is often overshadowed by his contemporaries such as Picasso, Matisse and Barque. Delaunay and his wife, Sonia Terk Delaunay, worked on a large, impressive abstract mural together for the Paris Exposition in 1937.
“As an artist, as a manual craftsman, I wage my revolution on walls. I have now discovered new materials that can transform a wall, not only externally but in its very substance. Separate man from art? Never. I cannot separate man from art because I build houses for him! Even when fashion dictated easel art, I was already envisaging great murals.” Robert Delaunay.
Robert Delaunay was born in Paris to an upper class family. He started painting when he was young and served an apprenticeship with a theatrical designer from 1902 to 1904. Otherwise he had no formal training. He was first exhibited in 1904 at the Salon des Independents (he was the youngest exhibitor ever) and his work was clearly influenced by the Impressionists. He began to experiment soon after, however, taking pointillist ideas and stretching them to incorporate colour and movement.
By 1908 he was playing an active role in the development of Cubism. His painting ‘The Eiffel Tower’ (1910) was received with great acclaim, and two years later his ‘City of Paris’ caused a sensation at the Salon des Independents. Delaunay’s abstract works proved revolutionary in the development of French art. Apollinaire christened his style Orphism in the way the art had similarities with the abstract in music. By 1914 Delaunay was experimenting with wax. With the outbreak of the First World War he moved first to Portugal then to Spain where he worked briefly with Diaghilev. Relocating to Paris in the Twenties he collaborated with Leger in the Art Deco Exhibition and worked in set design on a number of films. His reputation declined somewhat in the latter part of his career but he continued to experiment with materials such as sand, mosaics and lacquered stone to be used in his acclaimed ‘Reliefs’ series. He had always had grand ambitions for his art and these were fulfilled with his commissions for the International Exposition in 1937. The following year with the help of his wife Sonia and others he decorated the Tuileries Salon where he created three enormous ‘Rhythms’.
Robert Delaunay was hugely influential on the Expressionist movement, indeed, he had initially been invited to participate in the first Blaue Reiter exhibition in 1913. Yet his work was also an inspiration for the Futurists in Italy and the American Synchronizes, and he had many social contacts within the Dadaist movement.

Quotes:
Our understanding is correlative to our perception.
Light in Nature creates the movement of colors.
Impressionism; it is the birth of Light in painting.
If Art relates itself to an Object, it becomes descriptive, divisionist, literary.
But what is of great importance to me is observation of the movement of colors.
It is this research into pure painting that is the problem at the present moment. I do not know any painters in Paris who are really searching for this ideal world.
Vision is the true creative rhythm.
Painting is by nature a luminous language.
The auditory perception is not sufficient for our knowledge of the world; it does not have vastness.
Nature engenders the science of painting.
The eye is the most refined of our senses, the one which communicates most directly with our mind, our consciousness.
Simultaneity in light is harmony, the rhythm of colors which creates the Vision of Man.
On the other hand, the artist has much to do in the realm of color construction, which is so little explored and so obscure, and hardly dates back any farther than to the beginning of Impressionism.
Art in Nature is rhythmic and has a horror of constraint.
I am very much afraid of definitions, and yet one is almost forced to make them. One must take care, too, not to be inhibited by them.
Light comes to us by the sensibility. Without visual sensibility there is no light, no movement.
Direct observation of the luminous essence of nature is for me indispensable.
Seeing is in itself a movement.
This synchronous action then will be the Subject, which is the representative harmony.
In this movement of colors I find the essence, which does not arise from a system, or an a priori theory.
The idea of the vital movement of the world and its movement is simultaneity.
This communication alone, by the comparison of the antagonisms, rivalries, movements which give birth to decisive moments, permits the evolution of the soul, whereby a man realizes himself on earth. It is impossible to be concerned with anything else in art.
First of all, I always see the sun! The way I want to identify myself and others is with halos here and there halos, movements of color. And that, I believe, is rhythm.
I say it is indispensable to look ahead of and behind oneself in the present. If there is such a thing as tradition, and I believe there is, it can only exist in the sense of the most profound movements of culture.