ROBERT DELAUNAY

This exceptionally long and narrow painting by Robert Delaunay powerfully conveys the Eiffel Tower's soaring monumentality, further emphasized by the perspective, which places the viewer almost under the structure. Painted in a striking bright orange with swirling circles of red, yellow, blue, and green consuming its apex, the tower rises above the cacophony of Paris's cityscape. The small Neoclassical building on the right highlights the structure's striking modernity and calls attention to its extraordinary height, while the large-scale abstracted female nude in the foreground appears as a symbol of nature in opposition to the technological advancement represented by the tower. Built when Delaunay was only four years old, the Eiffel Tower captured the artist's imagination, and he completed more than thirty drawings and paintings of it over the course of his career. He particularly admired the geometric clarity and psychological impact of the tower, which remained the tallest structure in the world throughout his lifetime. This animated painting demonstrates Delaunay's interest in combining abstraction and figuration, as well as his inventive exploration of simultaneity and the possibilities of pure color.
Emily Hage, from Masterpieces from the Philadelphia Museum of Art: Impressionism and Modern Art (2007), p. 152