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More Art Deco Penthouse 1" = 1 ft. scale
The painting over the fireplace, titled “Eleanor and Her Sister”, is by Tamara di Lempica, a popular Art Deco artist best known for her portraits of sexy women in stylish outfits. Di Lempicka’s story was the subject of a stage play that ran two years in Los Angeles before opening Off-Broadway and later a one-woman show.
She was born in 1898 to a wealthy and prominent Polish couple. Her father was a lawyer; her mother, a socialite. Maria (her given name) attended Swiss boarding school and spent the 1911 winter with her grandmother on the French Riviera and in Italy, where she got her first exposure to the paintings of the Old Masters.
Following her parents’s divorce Maria was sent to live with a wealthy aunt in St. Petersburg, Russia. At the age of fifteen, while attending the opera, she spotted a man she set her cap to marry. Three years later they were wed. Tadeusz di Lempicka was a notorious ladies man, who was swayed by her large dowry.
In 1917 during the Russian Revolution, Tadeusz was arrested by the Bolsheviks. Maria searched the prisons for him, finally securing his release. The couple traveled to Copenhagen, London and finally Paris, where they lived off the sale of her family jewels. It was there she gave birth to her only child, a daughter named Kizette.
Very quickly Tamara’s dramatic style developed, following her exposure to what is sometimes called “soft cubism”. Whereas di Lempica believed many of the Impressionists drew badly and used “dirty” colors, by contrast her own work was clean and elegant.
For her first major show in Milan in 1925 di Lempicka painted 28 new works in six months. She was soon the most popular portrait painter of her generation, charging the equivalent in today’s dollars of $20,000 per painting. In 1929 she completed what is probably her best-known work -- Tamara in the green Bugatti – a self-portrait for the cover of a German magazine.
During the Roaring Twenties in Paris, Tamara was leading a wild Bohemian life, hanging out with Picasso, Cocteau and Gide. Famous for her libido, she was bisexual; her affairs with both men and women were considered scandalous even by today’s standards. Soon her husband, tired of their relationship, abandoned her and their young child; the next year they divorced.
Obsessed with her work and social life. Tamara neglected more than her husband; she rarely saw her daughter. Kizette lived with her grandmother when she wasn’t away at boarding school. In 1929 when di Lempicka wrote her mother and daughter she wouldn’t be returning from America for Christmas, Malvina was so angry she burned her daughter’s enormous collection of designer hats, as Kizette stood by cheering.
Although Kizette was ignored, she was also immortalized because her mother repeatedly used her as a model. It’s said that in other paintings, many subjects tended to look like the pretty blonde girl.
In 1928 her long-time patron, the Baron Raoul Kuffner, visited her studio to commission a portrait of his lover. She finished the project, then replaced his mistress in the Belgian’s life.
During her first visit to the U. S. she had a very successful show in Pittsburgh, but lost the proceeds when the banks collapsed. In reality, the Depression had little effect on her. By the early Thirties she and the Baron had settled in Beverly Hills, where her work was in great demand by film stars and nobility -- even kings and queens -- all wishing to be captured on canvas by her paintbrush. Museums began to collect her work.
She did war relief work like so many other immigrants. And somehow managed to get Kizette out of Nazi-occupied Paris via Lisbon. By ’43 the couple had relocated to New York City. Although she continued to live in style, socializing continuously, her popularity as a society painter had started to wane.
After Kuffner’s death from a heart attack in 1962, Tamara sold most of her possessions and made three around-the-world cruises. Finally, she settled in Houston to be near Kizette.
Her daughter, who tried serving as Tamara’s business manager and social secretary, suffered under her mother’s controlling domination and childish behavior. In 1978 De Lempicka moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico, to live among a colony of aging international jetsetters and faded aristocrats. To be said in Kizette’s defense, in 1980 she cared for her mother for three months until the artist died in her sleep.
More Art Deco Penthouse 1" = 1 ft. scale
The painting over the fireplace, titled “Eleanor and Her Sister”, is by Tamara di Lempica, a popular Art Deco artist best known for her portraits of sexy women in stylish outfits. Di Lempicka’s story was the subject of a stage play that ran two years in Los Angeles before opening Off-Broadway and later a one-woman show.
She was born in 1898 to a wealthy and prominent Polish couple. Her father was a lawyer; her mother, a socialite. Maria (her given name) attended Swiss boarding school and spent the 1911 winter with her grandmother on the French Riviera and in Italy, where she got her first exposure to the paintings of the Old Masters.
Following her parents’s divorce Maria was sent to live with a wealthy aunt in St. Petersburg, Russia. At the age of fifteen, while attending the opera, she spotted a man she set her cap to marry. Three years later they were wed. Tadeusz di Lempicka was a notorious ladies man, who was swayed by her large dowry.
In 1917 during the Russian Revolution, Tadeusz was arrested by the Bolsheviks. Maria searched the prisons for him, finally securing his release. The couple traveled to Copenhagen, London and finally Paris, where they lived off the sale of her family jewels. It was there she gave birth to her only child, a daughter named Kizette.
Very quickly Tamara’s dramatic style developed, following her exposure to what is sometimes called “soft cubism”. Whereas di Lempica believed many of the Impressionists drew badly and used “dirty” colors, by contrast her own work was clean and elegant.
For her first major show in Milan in 1925 di Lempicka painted 28 new works in six months. She was soon the most popular portrait painter of her generation, charging the equivalent in today’s dollars of $20,000 per painting. In 1929 she completed what is probably her best-known work -- Tamara in the green Bugatti – a self-portrait for the cover of a German magazine.
During the Roaring Twenties in Paris, Tamara was leading a wild Bohemian life, hanging out with Picasso, Cocteau and Gide. Famous for her libido, she was bisexual; her affairs with both men and women were considered scandalous even by today’s standards. Soon her husband, tired of their relationship, abandoned her and their young child; the next year they divorced.
Obsessed with her work and social life. Tamara neglected more than her husband; she rarely saw her daughter. Kizette lived with her grandmother when she wasn’t away at boarding school. In 1929 when di Lempicka wrote her mother and daughter she wouldn’t be returning from America for Christmas, Malvina was so angry she burned her daughter’s enormous collection of designer hats, as Kizette stood by cheering.
Although Kizette was ignored, she was also immortalized because her mother repeatedly used her as a model. It’s said that in other paintings, many subjects tended to look like the pretty blonde girl.
In 1928 her long-time patron, the Baron Raoul Kuffner, visited her studio to commission a portrait of his lover. She finished the project, then replaced his mistress in the Belgian’s life.
During her first visit to the U. S. she had a very successful show in Pittsburgh, but lost the proceeds when the banks collapsed. In reality, the Depression had little effect on her. By the early Thirties she and the Baron had settled in Beverly Hills, where her work was in great demand by film stars and nobility -- even kings and queens -- all wishing to be captured on canvas by her paintbrush. Museums began to collect her work.
She did war relief work like so many other immigrants. And somehow managed to get Kizette out of Nazi-occupied Paris via Lisbon. By ’43 the couple had relocated to New York City. Although she continued to live in style, socializing continuously, her popularity as a society painter had started to wane.
After Kuffner’s death from a heart attack in 1962, Tamara sold most of her possessions and made three around-the-world cruises. Finally, she settled in Houston to be near Kizette.
Her daughter, who tried serving as Tamara’s business manager and social secretary, suffered under her mother’s controlling domination and childish behavior. In 1978 De Lempicka moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico, to live among a colony of aging international jetsetters and faded aristocrats. To be said in Kizette’s defense, in 1980 she cared for her mother for three months until the artist died in her sleep.