Her Canvas

Women artists · across history & the world

The Happy Accident of the Swing, 1792, by Sonia Delaunay. Engraving in black ink on ivory laid paper. From the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Ukraine / France · 1885–1979

Sonia Delaunay

Abstract painter and designer who put colour theory onto fabric, cars and clothing.

  • Vibrant
  • Radical
  • Abstract Geometrics

Fun fact

She was the first living woman to have a retrospective at the Louvre.

How she made it

Simultaneous contrast put to work: flat discs and arcs of unmixed colour in gouache and oil, then transferred to appliqué, pochoir prints and printed textiles so the same colour theory ran across canvas and cloth.

Work
The Happy Accident of the Swing, 1792
Medium
Engraving in black ink on ivory laid paper
Collection
Prints and Drawings, Art Institute of Chicago
View this work

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