Original Announcement for Prose on the Trans-Siberian Railway and of the Little Jehanne of France by Blaise Cendrars

Sonia Delaunay French, born Ukraine

1913

Not on view

This small advertisement announces the "first simultaneous book": La Prose du Transsibérien et de la petite Jehanne de France, widely considered to be one of the most important artist’s books of the twentieth century and a celebrated example of Sonia Delaunay’s "simultaneous" abstract painting. The book, produced as an accordion-fold vertical sheet, contains a composition by the artist that runs parallel to a text by Blaise Cendrars: a semi-autobiographical account of a poet’s journey (with his companion, Jehanne) on the Trans-Siberian Railway through Russia and Mongolia. Cendrars’s prose, written in an erratic rhythm and printed in different fonts and colors, echoes the train’s trajectory through disparate landscapes, while the artist’s vibrant abstraction suggests the dynamic motion visible through a train window. This fluid unification of text and image gives visual form to the spatial and temporal dislocations of modern life effected by technological innovations.

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Title: Original Announcement for Prose on the Trans-Siberian Railway and of the Little Jehanne of France by Blaise Cendrars
Artist: Sonia Delaunay (French (born Ukraine), Gradizhsk 1885–1979 Paris)
Date: 1913
Medium: Watercolor with stenciled watercolor (pochoir) on paper
Dimensions: 13 3/8 × 3 3/4 in. (34 × 9.6 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Gift of Merrill C. Berman, in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary, 2020
Object Number: 2020.34.2
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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Original Wrapper for Prose on the Trans-Siberian Railway and of the Little Jehanne of France by Blaise Cendrars, Sonia Delaunay French, born Ukraine, Opaque matte paint on vellum — Original Wrapper for Prose on the Trans-Siberian Railway and of the Little Jehanne of France by Blaise Cendrars
Sonia Delaunay
1913

Prose on the Trans-Siberian Railway and of the Little Jehanne of France by Blaise Cendrars, Sonia Delaunay French, born Ukraine, Color stencil print (pochoir) with brush applied watercolor, opaque watercolor, and printing ink on four joined sheets of imitation Japan paper, accordion-folded — Prose on the Trans-Siberian Railway and of the Little Jehanne of France by Blaise Cendrars
Sonia Delaunay
1913

Plate 1 from Sonia Delaunay: ses peintures, ses objets, ses tissus simultanés, ses modes, Sonia Delaunay French, born Ukraine, Pochoir and relief process — Plate 1 from Sonia Delaunay: ses peintures, ses objets, ses tissus simultanés, ses modes
Sonia Delaunay
Librairie des Arts Décoratifs
[1925]

Plate 17 from Sonia Delaunay: ses peintures, ses objets, ses tissus simultanés, ses modes, Sonia Delaunay French, born Ukraine, Pochoir and relief process — Plate 17 from Sonia Delaunay: ses peintures, ses objets, ses tissus simultanés, ses modes
Sonia Delaunay
Librairie des Arts Décoratifs
[1925]

Plate 11 from Sonia Delaunay: ses peintures, ses objets, ses tissus simultanés, ses modes, Sonia Delaunay French, born Ukraine, Pochoir and relief process — Plate 11 from Sonia Delaunay: ses peintures, ses objets, ses tissus simultanés, ses modes
Sonia Delaunay
Librairie des Arts Décoratifs
[1925]

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