Guillaume Apollinaire coined the term “Orphism” for Robert Delaunay’s Cubist-related movement.
He introduced the term in 1912, using it to describe a form of painting that moved toward abstraction through intense colour, light, rhythm and independently constructed forms. Robert Delaunay and Sonia Delaunay became its best-known practitioners, while František Kupka was also closely associated with the tendency.
The name refers to Orpheus, the mythic musician and poet, and suggests an analogy between painting and music: both could create harmony without simply imitating visible objects. Apollinaire later discussed Orphism in his 1913 book Les Peintres Cubistes, describing it as an art built from elements created by the artist rather than copied from visual reality.
Orphism is sometimes confused with Cubism itself, Purism or Synchromism. It was not a completely unified school with strict membership, but a loose label for artists exploring colour, light and abstraction during Cubism’s development. The movement helped connect Cubism with later abstract art.