« L’œil danse » : décors et costumes de Robert et Sonia Delaunay pour Cléopâtre

The eye dances : decors and costumes of Robert and Sonia Delaunay for Cléopâtre. In 1918, Serge Diaghilev, founder of the Ballets Russes, approached the Delaunays with the suggestion to create new costumes and a new stage design for the ballet Cléopâtre. Sonia Delaunay applied the principle of her “simultaneous” art works (based on the research of M.-E. Chevreul) to the costumes, while her husband Robert created a dynamic, extremely colourful stage design. Cléopâtre is highly challenging for the observer’s visual perception, equalling the demands of the modern city on people’s eye. Concerning Sonia Delaunay’s objective to integrate people into modern everyday life by way of applying her art to private interiors and Robert’s later monumental mural decorations, Cléopâtre represents an important, previously underestimated leg in the artists’ œuvre.