Portrait of Tristan Tzara
Robert Delaunay, 1923
Portrait of Tristan Tzara is an oil on paperboard painting that Robert Delaunay made in 1923, shortly after returning to figuration following 1918. It shows the Romanian poet Tristan Tzara, a central figure of Dada and a close friend of the Delaunay couple. Tzara sits against a grey background, wearing a monocle with his arms folded. Yet the most arresting element is not his thoughtful face but the orange scarf that fills the centre of the canvas and covers the largest area. Its vivid colours contrast with the poet's gaze, which looks pale and worn. Sonia Delaunay painted the scarf in the simultanist manner, directly onto the fabric. The portrait leans more toward realism than Orphism, though it keeps traces of that movement, especially in the handling of the scarf and the face. During the First World War the Delaunays had taken refuge in Spain and Portugal, and on their return they grew close to the younger Dadaists, Tzara among them, who was the most loyal friend of those years.
- Painter
- Robert Delaunay
- Date
- 1923
- Medium
- cardboard
- Dimensions
- 104 × 75 cm
- Museum
- Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
- Genre
- portrait
- Depicts
- Tristan Tzara, scarf
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