(Warsaw 1898–1980 Cuernavaca /Mexico) Nu au livre, circa 1958, oil on canvas, 92 x 73 cm, framed, (PP)

Photo certificate:
Alain Blondel, Paris, 11 June 2008

Provenance:
Private Collection, New York;
Private Collection, Europe

Literature:
A. Blondel, Lempicka. Catalogue Raisonné 1921–1979, Acatos Editore, 1999, no. 379, page 388 with ill.

Tamara de Lempicka`s eventful and adventurous life in various countries led her from Switzerland via Copenhagen and Paris to St. Petersburg. There she first started to earn her living with painting. In 1925 de Lempicka presented her art in an Art Deco exhibition for the first time and very soon became a highly coveted artist.
In 1943 she moved to the United States together with her husband, where she continued her career, always placing her focus on the theme of beauty.
As the works from her early years, Lempicka’s pictures from that period reflect her love for beautiful women. Her oeuvre thus comprises numerous portraits of voluptuous beauties of American high society. In those years, the artist worked with a palette knife, applying the paint directly onto the canvas, so that the outlines, which formerly had stood out sharply, made a tender and freely floating impression. Nu au livre, a painting dating from around 1958, clearly shows these soft transitions, as it does without a distinct silhouette. It shows a woman immersed in thought, with her head inclined. It seems as if she is thinking about what she has just read. While her right hand barely holds on to the book, her left hand supports her head, underlining her contemplative pose. The delicate pastel tones lend the painting a subtle sensuality. Only the sitter’s hair is prominently accentuated in terms of colour. Tamara de Lempicka has created here a self-contained composition of a strongly emotional nature.