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Lot Essay
Jean-Louis Delaunay and Richard Riss have confirmed the authenticity of this work.
In the years before his untimely death in 1941, Delaunay shifted his interest from easel painting to architecture, experimenting on murals and three-dimensional supports. Four years after the present work was executed, the artist participated in the last large-scale international exhibition--Arts et Techniques, held in the Palais des chemins de fer--in Paris before the war. Bold and innovative, Relief Rythme prefigures the magnificent reliefs that would adorn the pillars of the railway station's entry hall (fig. 2).
(fig. 1) The summation of Delaunay's mural art--the lobby of the Palais des chemins de fer at the 1937 Arts et Technique exhibition. In the background, his monumental panel Air fer eau and decorative reliefs are visible.
(fig. 2) Close-up of one of the entry hall's pillar reliefs.
(fig. 3) The artist standing in front of another painted relief, 1937.
In the years before his untimely death in 1941, Delaunay shifted his interest from easel painting to architecture, experimenting on murals and three-dimensional supports. Four years after the present work was executed, the artist participated in the last large-scale international exhibition--Arts et Techniques, held in the Palais des chemins de fer--in Paris before the war. Bold and innovative, Relief Rythme prefigures the magnificent reliefs that would adorn the pillars of the railway station's entry hall (fig. 2).
(fig. 1) The summation of Delaunay's mural art--the lobby of the Palais des chemins de fer at the 1937 Arts et Technique exhibition. In the background, his monumental panel Air fer eau and decorative reliefs are visible.
(fig. 2) Close-up of one of the entry hall's pillar reliefs.
(fig. 3) The artist standing in front of another painted relief, 1937.