Portugese Still Life 1916

Sonia Delaunay made this painting, Portugese Still Life, with oil on canvas. I wonder what it was like for her to move the brush in those swirling patterns, like a dance around the forms. It’s a symphony of oranges, yellows, greens, and blues, pulling me in and out of recognizable shapes. It must have been liberating to let colors bleed and blend, creating these vibrant, almost musical rhythms with paint. The surface is alive with visible brushstrokes – thick in some places, thin in others. Look at the orange on the left side, see how the brush has moved in a spiral? The energy is infectious. You feel the artist’s hand in these gestures. You see the influence of post-impressionism and cubism but something all her own. Painters are always chatting with one another across time and place, responding to what came before and pushing towards something new. And that, like this painting, becomes an open-ended experiment, a site for ongoing inquiry.