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Sonia Delaunay-Terk (nėe Terk) (November 14, 1885 – December 5, 1979) was a Jewish-French artist who, with her husband Robert Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. Her work extends to painting, textile design and stage set design. She was the first living female artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre in 1964, and in 1975 was named an officer of the French Legion of Honor.

Her work in modern design included the concepts of geometric abstraction, the integration of furniture, fabrics, wall coverings, and clothing.

Early life (1885-1904)
Sarah Ilinitchna Stern was born in Gradizhske (now in Poltava Oblast) in the Ukraine. At a young age she moved to St. Petersburg, where she was cared for by her mother's brother, Henri Terk. Henri, a successful and affluent Jewish lawyer, and his wife Anna wanted to adopt her but her mother would not allow it. Finally in 1890 she was adopted by the Terkse. She assumed the name Sonia Terk and received a privileged upbringing with the Terks, they spent their summers in Finland and traveled widely in Europe introducing Sonia to art museums and galleries. When she was 16 she attended a well-regarded secondary school in St. Petersburg, where her skill at drawing was noted by her teacher. When she was 18, at her teacher's suggestion, she was sent to art school in Germany where she attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe. She studied in Germany until 1905 when she decided to move on to Paris.

Paris (1905-1910)
When she arrived in Paris she enrolled at the Académie de la Palette in Montparnasse. Unhappy with the mode of teaching, which she thought was too critical, she spent less time at the Académie and more time in galleries around Paris. Her own work during this period was strongly influenced by the art she was viewing including the post-impressionist art of Van Gogh, Gauguin and Henri Roushers and the fauves including Henri Matisse and Derain. During her first year in Paris she met, and in 1908 married, German homosexual art gallery owner Wilhelm Uhde. Little is known about their union, but it is assumed to have been a marriage of convenience to escape the demands of her parents, who disliked her artistic career, for her to return to Russia. Sonia gained entrance into the art world via exhibitions at Uhde's gallery and benefitted from his connections, and Uhde masked his homosexuality through his public marriage to Sonia.

Sonia met Robert Delaunay in early 1909: his aunt was a regular visitor at Uhde's gallery. They became lovers in April of that year and it was decided that she and Uhde should divorce. The divorce was finalised in August 1910, as she was pregnant. She and Robert quickly married on November 15, and their son Charles was born on January 18. They were supported by an allowance sent from Sonia's aunt in St. Petersburg.

Orphism (1911-1913)
In 1911 Sonia made a patchwork quilt for Charles's crib, which is now in the collection of the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris. This quilt was created spontaneously and uses geometry and color. "About 1911 I had the idea of making for my son, who had just been born, a blanket composed of bits of fabric like those I had seen in the houses of Russian peasants. When it was finished, the arrangement of the pieces of material seemed to me to evoke cubist conceptions and we then tried to apply the same process to other objects and paintings," Sonia Delaunay Contemporary art critics recognize this as the point where she moved away from perspective and naturalism in her art. Around the same time, cubist works were being shown in Paris and Robert had been studying the color theories of Michel Eugène Chevreul; they called their experiments with color in art and design simultanéisme. Simultaneous design occurs when one design, when placed next to another, affects both; this is similar to the theory of colors (Pointillism, as used by e.g. Georges Seurat) in which primary color dots placed next to each other are "mixed" by the eye and affect each other. Sonia's first large-scale painting in this style was Bal Bullier (1912–13), a painting known for both its use of color and movement.

The Delaunays' friend, the poet and art critic Guillaume Apollinaire, coined the term Orphism to describe the Delaunays' version of cubism in 1913. It was through Apollinaire that in 1912 Sonia met the poet Blaise Cendrars who was to become her friend and collaborator. She illustrated his poem La prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France (Prose of the Trans-Siberian and of Little Jehanne of France) about a journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway, by creating a 2m-long accordion-pleated book. Using simultaneous design principles the book merged text and design. The book, which was sold almost entirely by subscription, created a stir amongst Paris critics. The simultaneous book was later shown at the Autumn Salon in Berlin in 1913 along with paintings and other applied artworks such as dresses, and it is said that Paul Klee was so impressed with her use of squares in her binding of Cendrars's poem that they became an enduring feature in his own work.

Spanish and Portuguese years (1914-1920)
The Delaunays travel to Spain in 1914, staying with friends in Madrid. At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 Sonia and Robert are staying in Fontarabie, with their son still in Madrid. They decide not to return to France. In August 1915 they move to Portugal where they share a home with Samuel Halpert and Eduardo Viana. With Viana and their friends Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, whom the Delaunays had already met in Paris, and José de Almada Negreiros they discuss an artistic partnership. In Portugal she paints Marché au Minho (the market at Minho, 1916), which she later says was "inspired by the beauty of the country". Sonia has a solo exhibition in Stockholm (1916).

The Russian Revolution brings an end to the financial support Sonia receives from her family in Russia, and a different source of income is needed. In 1917 the Delaunays meet Sergei Diaghilev in Madrid. Sonia designs costumes for his production of Cleopatra (stage design by Robert Delaunay) and for the performance of Aida in Barcelona. In Madrid she decorates the Petit Casino (a nightclub) and founds Casa Sonia, selling her designs for interior decoration and fashion, with a branch in Bilbao. She is the center of a Madrid Salon.

Sonia Delaunay travels to Paris twice in 1920 looking for opportunities in the fashion business, and in August she writes a letter to Paul Poiret stating she wants to expand her business and include some of his designs. Poiret declines, claiming she has copied designs from his Ateliers de Martine and is married to a French deserter (Robert). Galerie der Sturm in Berlin shows works by Sonia and Robert from their Portuguese period the same year.

Return to Paris (1921-1944)
Sonia, Robert and their son Charles returned to Paris permanently in 1921 and moved into Boulevard Malesherbes 19. For the 1923 staging of Tristan Tzaras play Le Cœur à Gaz she designed the set and costumes. In 1924 she opened a fashion studio together with Jacques Heim. In 1925 she participated in the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (Art Deco) in Paris together with Vadim Meller, Aleksandra Ekster, Nathan Altman and David Shterenberg. Sonia designed costumes for two films: Le Vertige directed by Marcel L'Herbier and Le P'tit Parigot, directed by René Le Somptier. Her husband Robert died in October 1941.

Later life (1945-1979)
After the second world war, Sonia Delaunay was a board member of the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles for several years. Sonia and her son Charles in 1964 donated 114 works by Sonia and Robert Delaunay to the Musée National d'Art Moderne. Alberto Magnelli told her "she and Braque were the only living painters to have been shown at the Louvre". In 1966 she published Rythmes-Couleurs (color-rhythms), with 11 of her gouaches reproduced as pochoirs and texts by Jacques Damase, and in 1969 Robes poèmes (poem-dresses), also with texts by Jacques Damase containing 27 pochoirs. For Matra, she decorated a Matra 530. In 1975 Sonia Delaunay was named an officer of the French Legion of Honor. Her autobiography, Nous irons jusqu'au soleil (We shall go up to the sun) was published in 1978.

Sonia Delaunay died December 5, 1979 in Paris, aged 94. She was buried in Gambais, next to Robert Delaunay's grave.

Her work in modern design included the use of geometric abstraction and the integration of furniture, fabrics, wall coverings and clothing. Jazz expert Charles Delaunay is her son.

Legacy
Delaunay's painting Coccinelle was featured on a stamp jointly released by the French Post Office, La Poste and the United Kingdom's Royal Mail in 2004 to commemorate the centenary of the Entente Cordiale.