The estate of art critic and publisher Jacques Damase, Paris, a close friend of the artist who promoted her work in the last 16 years of her life.

The career of Russian-born colourist Sonia Delaunay spanned seven decades, from the Belle Epoque to the 1970s. After studying in Germany, in 1905 she settled in Paris,where she would remain for most of her life. From around 1911, along with her husband,Robert Delaunay, she pioneered a particular branch of Cubism known as Simultanism (or Orphism, as it was termed by Apollinaire), which was based on the colour theory developed in the nineteenth century by Michel Eugène Chevreul (De laloi du contraste simultanée des couleurs, Paris, 1839).In this abstract style, form is subjugated to colour: the vital rhythm of a work is created by the interaction of overlapping and juxtaposed contrasting colours.