01 Work, The Art Of The Nude, with footnotes # 55

Tamara de Lempicka, 1898 - 1980
NU ASSIS DE PROFIL, c. 1923
Oil on canvas
32 by 21 1/4 in., 81.2 by 54 cm
Private collection

Lempicka's sleek representations of the female nude are renowned as emblems of the Jazz Age. Painted around 1923 in Paris, the female figure in the present work resembles an Amazonian goddess. Her powerful limbs extend beyond the boundary of the picture and the mechanized appearance and sturdy curvature of her body call to mind the Purist figures in Léger's seminal Le Petit déjeuner. Unlike the more sterile renderings of her contemporaries in the 1920s, Lempicka's nudes channeled an unapologetic brand of female sexuality that few before her had dared to attempt. More on this painting

Tamara Łempicka (born Maria Górska; 16 May 1898 – 18 March 1980), also known as Tamara de Lempicka, was a Polish painter active in the 1920s and 1930s, who spent her working life in France and the United States. She is best-known for her polished Art-Deco portraits of aristocrats and the wealthy, and for her highly-stylized paintings of nudes.

Born in Warsaw, Lempicka moved to Saint Petersburg where she married a prominent Polish lawyer, then emigrated to Paris with her husband following the Russian Revolution. Her style was a blend of late, refined cubism and the neoclassical style, particularly inspired by the work of Jean-Dominique Ingres. She was an active participant in the artistic and social life of Paris between the Wars. In 1928 she became the mistress of wealthy art collector from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Baron Raoul Kuffner. After the death of his wife in 1933, the Baron married Lempicka in 1934, and thereafter she became known in the press as "The Baroness with a Brush."

Following the outbreak of World War II in 1939, she and her husband moved to the United States and she painted celebrity portraits, as well as still-lifes and, in the 1960s, some abstract paintings. Her work was out of fashion after World War II, but made a comeback in the late 1960s, with the rediscovery of Art Deco. She moved to Mexico in 1974, where she died in 1980. At her request, her ashes were scattered over the Popocatapetl volcano. More on Tamara Łempicka




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10 works, The Art Of The Nude, MAN RAY's Kiki of Montparnasse, with footnotes #217

MAN RAY (1890-1976) Portrait de Kiki, c. 1923 Oil on canvas 24 1/8 x 18 in. (61.3 x 45.6 cm.) Private collection Sold for USD 1,623,000 in ...