 Robert Delaunay (French, 1885–1941) The Rainbow, 1913 Oil on canvas
Purchase, 1966 (3417.1) Inspired by Eugène Chevreul's highly influential 1855
treatise on the law of simultaneous contrasts, Robert
Delaunay reinterpreted Cubism in terms of color.
Delaunay drew impetus from Chevreul's theory that
colors in the spectrum resonate according to their
juxtaposition to liberate color and empower it with the
articulation of depth, sensation, and movement in a
painting. "These colored planes are the structure of the
picture, and nature is no longer a subject for description
but a pretext," he wrote, seeking to abandon altogether
the "images or reality that come to corrupt the order of
color." One of several Paris scenes Delaunay did between
1910 and 1913, The Rainbow represents a step along
the way to this pure abstraction. The Eiffel Tower's
distinctive shape emerges ghost-like through the arc of
the rainbow at right, while the dome of the Sacré Coeur
cathedral is just visible on the horizon. But the
painting's real subject is its vivid, riotous color, which
transcends its descriptive role to operate as an
energizing and even spiritualizing force. Christened
"Orphism" by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire,
Delaunay's style is one of several adaptations of
Cubism developed in France in the second decade of
the 20th century. |