Les fenêtres sur la ville (Windows Overlooking the City)

In 1912, Robert Delaunay produced, in rapid succession, a series of window pictures, Les fenêtres simultanées. Artistically, these compositions are linked to views of Paris he had begun in 1909. Delaunay was initially interested in the motif of a windowpane reflecting and refracting light or mirroring new technologies such as Ferris wheels, the Eiffel Tower or street lights. Moreover, he was especially interested in adding a temporal dimension to traditional depictions of the visible world in a pictorial space in perspective, in order to illustrate a simultaneousness of events, views and experiences characteristic of a modern metropolis. In this frieze-like composition, Delaunay brings together themes from previous window pictures to form a panoramic view of Paris.