Marché au Minho, Portugal

Marché au Minho belongs to a seminal series of large scale paintings Sonia Delaunay embarked upon during the critical years of 1915-1916, inspired by the lively market at Minho, Portugal. This important series, borne out of the abstract qualities of light enhanced by the distinctive rays of Portuguese sun, enabled Delaunay to further her exploration of colour contrasts and to delve deeper into the study of light that would become her trademark, becoming known amongst the most significant series' providing her greatest contribution to Orphism. As noted by Jacques Damase of the grand example of Marché au Minho from 1916 which resides in the Centre Pompidou, Paris: ‘Of all the works they did, the Market in the Minho is the best; it is a climax of denseness and discipline of composition, attempting to define reality through a complex interplay of representational and abstract coloured elements. The aim is not, of course, to represent a scene, but, by decomposing and recomposing it, to make a study of light in the Minho valley’ (J. Damase, Sonia Delaunay, Rhythms and Colours, London, 1972, pp. 96-97).

This extraordinary journey into colour and light was borne out of an unusual situation. In August 1914 whilst on holiday in the Iberian Peninsula, Sonia and Robert Delaunay and their son Charles, suddenly found themselves stranded abroad upon the declaration of war between France and Germany. With Robert formally discharged from service years earlier, and little reason to return to Paris, they took the opportunity to remain in the region, dividing their time between Spain and Portugal for what would become several years, until 1920. In early 1915, they would move to Vila do Conde near Oporto in Northern Portugal, joining a village that hosted a thriving community of artists and intellectuals. The Delaunays were instantly made to feel welcome by their new circle of friends, as Sonia remarked: ‘A dream life. We could work quietly from morning to night. The villa was perched on the sand dunes, with the cacti blooming in the garden. I thought I was living in a fairytale. As soon as we arrived, I fell in love with the village’ (S. Delaunay quoted in Nous Irons Jusqu'au Soleil, Paris, 1978, p. 37).

The sheer size and grandeur of the epic Marché au Minho series recalls the stateliness and power of early-Renaissance frescoes, the artist enshrining and elevating her subject to a grand scale as if a history painting of her time. Such a bold and impressive practice was enabled by the large studios in the unfinished Valença do Minho convent where the artist and her husband, fellow artist Robert Delaunay, worked during this time. They had initially been commissioned to design a mural for the decoration of the façade of a local chapel which would be translated into tile, and had been provided with a magnificently large space to work in towards this project. The preliminary design for the unrealised masterpiece L'hommage au donateur from 1916 is now held now at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, as is the similarly monumental sister painting, Marché au Minho of the same year. The Museum of Modern Art in New York too holds a significant example in Portuguese Market, 1915, bursting with exuberant colour from the artist’s oil and wax technique which provided the artist with the most vibrant hues.

From this home they explored new sources of inspiration related to their strong interest in local art and design that would influence their work for decades to come. The isolated, rustic beauty of the place particularly captivated Sonia Delaunay. She found the colours of the village and surrounding countryside intoxicating and painted tirelessly from dawn to dusk. The traditional culture brought back memories of her childhood, and she took inspiration from the shapes and hues of the local costumes, pottery, vegetables, flowers and animals to put into practice the conceptual experiments she had begun before the war in Paris. Whilst it remains unclear who the sitter is, and whether she is based on a specific person, her image in Marché au Minho in some way resembles the artist herself, surrounded by the bright hues and textures of her present home, relating back to her memories of youth.

In Marché au Minho, the artist places the beautiful young woman as the central figure within the composition, within her domain of the market. Colourful fabrics, fruits, vegetables and ceramics surround her in bright, primary hues formed of abstract coloured spheres, generating movement and depth and enhancing the dynamic arrangement of colour. The overall tone is warm, with reds, oranges and yellows. The greens and blues are loaded with yellow and there is an interplay of simultaneous contrasts. Each primary colour gains in intensity alongside its complementary colour. This combination of abstract and figurative motifs closely reflects Delaunay's new artistic direction, combining figurative elements with abstraction, artistic research with folk art: 'I tried to express the light,' she recalled, 'the richness and the strength of the colours of the women, of the local vegetables and fruits, before finally focusing on a single subject: the market teeming with life, colour, people, animals, vegetables, with the viaduct rising in the background. I made multiple sketches to base my impressions around a strict composition, in order to best express what I felt’ (S. Delaunay quoted in M. Hogg, Robert et Sonia Delaunay, exh. cat., Musée national d'art moderne, Paris, 1967, p. 152).