Robert Delaunay

Original Prints: Lithographs

A major figure in the tumultous Parisian avant-garde before the first World War, Robert Delaunay (1885 - 1941) was instrumental in the progressive passage from impressionism to abstraction, and, notably, in the development of what Guillaume Apollinaire would call Orphic Cubism in 1912, first revealed during the Salon des Indépendents of 1913.

Between 1909-10, in homage to Cezanne (and recalling Monet's renowned series), he produced his first series of seven pictures, Saint Séverin, a small thirteenth-century Gothic church in the Latin Quarter of Paris, analyzing the interplay of light, color and space in an expressive interpretation of the cubist movement, often called his "destructive" period.

Though he did not produce many prints, he used the lithographic medium to explore his artistic vision to advantage.

Saint Séverin Loyer & Perussaux 2 lithograph, circa 1923-25 (?), the only known state, a very fine impression of the utmost rarity, from the first printing, in two colors (black and yellow bistre), exceptionally signed and dedicated by the artist A rare early impression of this powerful print, showing the cubist "deconstructing" (a preferable term in our opinion) of the old church's interior.       next artist  >