Sonia Delaunay-Terk

Sophia Stern was the youngest child of a poor Jewish couple and adopted at the age of five by her mother’s brother, Henri Terk, who renamed her to Sonia Terk.

After studying in St. Petersburg and at several German art academies, including the one in Karlsruhe, Sonia Terk moved to Paris, where she married the art dealer Wilhelm Uhde in a marriage of convenience in 1908 to escape her family’s supervision.

Shortly afterwards, she met the painter Robert Delaunay. Two years later, the couple married. She soon rose to become one of the most experimental artists in Paris and became known far beyond its borders.

Together with Robert Delaunay, she gradually developed so-called Orphism. With the aim of to counter pure music with pure painting.

Sonia Delaunay-Terk’s artistic ideas also formed the basis for theater decorations and costumes. She also designed fabrics for internationally renowned fashion designers.

In 1975, she was awarded membership of the French Legion of Honor and one year later bequeathed her entire graphic oeuvre to the her entire graphic oeuvre to the Centre Pompidou in Paris.