Paris in the 1920s: The artist couple Robert and Sonia Delaunay returned to France in 1921 after World War I, moving into an apartment on Boulevard Malesherbes. The city was vibrant and shaped, among other influences, by a new artistic avant-garde. Robert Delaunay quickly came into contact with representatives of Dadaism and Surrealism, and in the years that followed, the Delaunays’ private salon evolved into an artistic and literary gathering place. Delaunay became a keen observer and—after a long absence since his last self-portraits in 1909—began to depict the human figure again. Between 1920 and 1930, he painted portraits of poets, artists, and companions from his close personal circle, ranging from Tristan Tzara to Jean Cocteau.

Robert Delaunay also welcomed Madame Heim—wife of fashion designer Jacques Heim, who worked closely with Sonia Delaunay during those years—into this illustrious circle of sitters. He dedicated about 20 works—including studies as well as head and half-length portraits—to this elegant figure from the fashion world, depicted here with a stylish waterwave hairstyle and bright red lipstick, exuding effortless style. Over her shoulder, she wears a scarf designed by Sonia Delaunay, which seems to define the cool blue-purple-white color scheme of the entire portrait, and she gazes unperturbed at the viewer with bright blue eyes. Circular light reflections—only suggested on her forehead and hand—allow her human form to blend with the geometric shapes of the rest of the pictorial space, ranging from the halogen-like circles of color in the background that frame her head, to the austere rectangles of the chair, and the colorful checks of the scarf draped prominently over her shoulder. Behind her shoulder, near the left edge of the painting, a second shadowy figure can be discerned; this might be the artist himself, adding another layer of interpretation.

Within the series of portraits of Madame Heim, this work—particularly because of its realistically rendered facial expression—is arguably the most meticulously detailed portrait. It seems as though “Delaunay was [...] grappling with a formal problem” and as though he were working his way through “the numerous versions of ‘Madame Heim’ [...] toward a long-buried element of his art”, as stated in one of the catalogs accompanying the numerous exhibitions in which this work has been displayed to date (quote from Annegret Hoberg, in: Peter-Klaus Schuster (ed.), Delaunay and Germany, Cologne 1985, p. 377). It is a phase of synthesis in which Robert Delaunay masterfully succeeded in merging his iconic color circles—known from “Orphism”— reflections of light, and the disruption of perspective with the naturalistic portrait of Madame Heim, and transforming them into a visual world in which color, light, and the human face encounter one another in a new, equally significant way and complement one another. [AR]