Three large stained-glass windows produced for Irish churches in 1915 marked an early departure for Marthe Donas, a Belgian artist who eventually abandoned traditional portraiture for the rigorous geometry of Cubism. Operating under the masculine pseudonyms Tour d'Onasky and Tour Donas, she secured an international reputation while navigating the restrictive social expectations of the early twentieth-century European art world.
Early Constraints and Artistic Training
Born in Antwerp in 1885, Donas grew up in a French-speaking bourgeois household. Despite paternal opposition, she entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts at age seventeen. Further academic pursuit followed in 1912 at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts under Frans Van Kuyck. These initial years were marked by domestic tension, as her father prohibited her participation in exhibitions and contact with other creative peers, limiting her output to still lifes and private portraits.
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The German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 forced the family to relocate to the Netherlands. Donas eventually broke from family oversight and moved to Dublin. She developed technical skills in print-making and drawing before joining Sarah Purser’s studio, An Tur Gloine. The 1916 Easter Rising necessitated her departure from Ireland, leading her to Paris at the end of that year.
Cubism and the Archipenko Influence
Upon settling in Montparnasse, she joined the Académies de la Grande Chaumière and Ranson. Exposure to the work of André Lhote introduced her to Cubism, a style she refined further after moving to Nice in 1917. There, she collaborated with Ukrainian sculptor Alexander Archipenko, incorporating industrial materials like sand, cement, and fabric into her paintings. Her work focused on female figures, employing concave and convex forms to suggest movement.
Career Advancement and Pseudonymity
To counter the bias against female artists in the intellectual art scene, she published works under pseudonyms to ensure her pieces were taken seriously. Her work appeared in publications including De Stijl, Der Sturm, and Mécano. She participated in the 1914–19 French Art exhibition in London and held solo shows at Librairie Kundig in Geneva and Der Sturm in Berlin.
Fast facts
- Born: 1885, Antwerp
- Died: 1967, Quiévrain
- Citizenship: Belgium
- Primary movements: Abstract art, Cubism
- Education: Royal Academy of Fine Arts
- Notable pseudonyms: Tour d'Onasky, Tour Donas, M. Donas
- Occupations: Painter, photographer, visual artist
Questions readers ask
Why did Marthe Donas use male pseudonyms?
She utilized names like Tour Donas because abstract and cubist art were perceived as overly intellectual for women, and male names secured higher levels of professional respect and commissions.
Which artistic movements influenced her?
She was primarily influenced by Cubism through André Lhote and Alexander Archipenko, and later explored purist aesthetics associated with Le Corbusier and Amédée Ozenfant.
Achievements
- Movement: abstract art
