Robert Delaunay
1885-1941
Inspired early on by the Neo-Impressionism of Georges Seurat, the Frenchman Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) started to paint together with the group "Der Blaue Reiter" in 1911. At the first exhibition of the artists' group from Munich, he even sold the most paintings of all.
In contrast to Kandinsky, Delaunay focused on light. His window paintings, the "Fenêtre", led him to what Guillaume Apollinaire later named "Orphism": vibrating areas of colour are shaping the form to be depicted. It was during this period that Delaunay finally rejected Abstract Cubism.
In 1912, the "Formes circulaires" which were a further development of his "Fenêtre" series, marked the beginning of abstract painting in France.
