20 April 2015

baby quilt 1911 (for her son charles)

Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979) has always been a favourite at Persephone Books and we would have loved to use one of her fabrics on an endpaper. But we have not so far  published a French book that was the right period. The only contender would have been Dimanche, and Irène Némirovsky would surely have loved Delaunay’s designs; yet we felt  that a sombre, witty fabric was more appropriate. Now a Delaunay exhibition has opened at Tate Modern. It will be difficult to choose five pieces out of three hundred but first off: the quilt Delaunay designed for her baby son Charles in 1911.