LOT 24 Top photo
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF WOLFGANG JOOP
TAMARA DE LEMPICKA
1898 - 1980
PORTRAIT DE MARJORIE FERRY
4,000,000—6,000,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 4,898,500 USD
MEASUREMENTS
measurements
39 3/8 by 25 5/8 in.
alternate measurements
100 by 65 cm
DESCRIPTION
Painted in 1932.
Signed Lempicka (lower left)
Oil on canvas
PROVENANCE
Lempicka's dynamic still life from 1931 features a portrait of Arlette Boucard, a young woman the artist portrayed as an adolescent in 1928. Arlette was the daughter of Pierre Boucard, a renowned physician and one of the artist's most important patrons. For this new composition, Lempicka pairs a photograph of the girl with a bouquet of arums or calla lilies, a dual symbol of purity and seduction and an allusion to Arlette's passage from the innocence of youth to the worldliness of womanhood. Similar to the suggestive flower compositions that Georgia O'Keefe completed around the same time, Lempicka's flowers are an overt reference to the blossoming sexuality of the femme fatale in the photograph.
In his monograph on the artist, Patrick Bade has written the following analysis of this captivating picture: "The almost monochromatic Arlette Boucard with arums is a still life that displays several characteristic features of De Lempicka's art, such as her love of transparent and reflective surfaces and the highly eroticized forms of the lilies that reach up to the top edge of the canvas much as the spiralling figures do in her female portraits" (P. Bade, op. cit., p. 186).
LOT 26 third photo
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF WOLFGANG JOOP
TAMARA DE LEMPICKA
1898 - 1980
PORTRAIT DE LA DUCHESSE DE LA SALLE
4,000,000—6,000,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 4,450,500 USD
MEASUREMENTS
measurements
63 3/4 by 38 1/4 in.
alternate measurements
162 by 97 cm
DESCRIPTION
Painted in 1925.
Signed T. de Lempicka (upper right)
Oil on canvas
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, France (by 1967)
Galerie du Luxembourg, Paris (by 1988)
Barry Friedman, Ltd., New York (by 1988)
Acquired from the above in 1991
EXHIBITED
Milan, Bottega di Poesia, Tamara de Lempicka, 1925, no. 15, illustrated in the catalogue
Paris, Salon d'Automne, 1926, no. 1446
Paris, Galerie du Luxembourg, Tamara de Lempicka de 1925 à 1935, 1972, no. 9, illustrated in the catalogue
Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris 1925, 1976-77, no. 146
Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Tendenzen der Zwanziger Jahre, 1977, no. 101
London, Hayward Gallery, Neue Sachlichkeit and German Realism of the Twenties, 1978-79, no. 181
Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, La famille des portraits, 1980
Tokyo & Osaka, Seibu Galleries, Tamara de Lempicka, 1981
Berlin, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Androgyn, 1986, no. 8
Mexico, Museo Nacional de Arte, Tamara de Lempicka, 1989
Montréal, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Les années 20, l'âge des métropoles, 1991, no. 360
Montréal, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tamara de Lempicka, 1994
Rome, Accademia di Francia, Villa Medici, Tamara de Lempicka, Tra eleganza e trasgressione, 1994, no. 10, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Der kühle Blick: Realismus der Zwanzigerjahre in Europa und Amerika, 2001, illustrated in color in the catalogue
London, Royal Academy of Arts & Bilbao, Guggenheim Museum, Paris: Capital of the Arts, 1900-1968, 2002, no. 66, illustrated in color in the catalogue
London, Royal Academy of Arts & Vienna, Kunstforum Wien, Tamara de Lempicka: Art Deco Icon, 2004-05, no. 17, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Boulogne-Billancourt, Musée des Années 30, Tamara de Lempicka, 2006, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Milan, Palazzo Reale, Tamara de Lempicka, 2006-07, no. 18, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Vigo, Fundación Caixa Galicia, Tamara de Lempicka, 2007
Madrid, Fundación Mapfre, Amazonas del Arte Nuevo, 2008
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES
Tamara de Lempicka, Annotated Photographic Album, Archives Lempicka, Houston, 1923-33, no. 37
Pietro Torriano, "Tamara de Lempicka," Emporium, vol. LXII, no. 372, Bergamo, December, 1925, illustrated p. 402
Die Dame, Berlin, February, 1927, illustrated p. 32
Die Wochenschau, Essen, June 17, 1927, illustrated
Didier de Sceaux, "Un peintre: Tamara de Lempicka," Le Forum, Paris, July 12, 1927, illustrated
"Recent Paintings by Tamara de Lempicka," Vanity Fair, New York, February, 1927, illustrated p. 47
Marc Vaux, Lempicka Collection, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 1972, no. 37
Giancarlo Marmori, Tamara de Lempicka, Milan, 1977, illustrated in color p. 53
Giancarlo Marmori, Tamara de Lempicka, The major works of Tamara de Lempicka 1925 to 1935, Milan, 1978, illustrated in color p. 17
Germain Bazin & Hiroyuki Itsuki, Tamara de Lempicka, Tokyo, 1980, no. 11, illustrated in color
Alberto Arbasino, "Tamara in Hollywood," F.M.R., no. 18, February-March, 1986, illustrated on the cover
Michel Frizot, Le Passé Composé - Les 6 x 13 de J.-H. Lartigue, P.U.F., Paris, 1987
Wolfgang Joop, "Tamara de Lempicka, Träume von Mythen und Moden," Pan, Burda GmbH, Offenburg, May, 1987, illustrated p. 10
Baroness Kizette de Lempicka-Foxhall & Charles Phillips, Passion by design, The art and times of Tamara de Lempicka, New York, 1987, illustrated in color p. 51
Jean Clair, Les années 20 - L'âge des métropoles, Montreal, 1991, no. 360, illustrated p. 565
Ellen Thormann, Tamara de Lempicka, Kunstkritik und Künstlerinnen in Paris, Berlin, 1993, no. 55, illustrated in color on the cover
Gilles Néret, Tamara de Lempicka 1898-1980, Cologne, 1993, illustrated in color p. 10
Gioia Mori, Tamara de Lempicka, Parigi 1920-1938, Florence, 1994, no. 26, illustrated in color p. 125
Alain Blondel, Tamara de Lempicka, Catalogue Raisonné 1921-1979, Lausanne, 1999, no. B.72, illustrated in color p. 149
Kerstin Stremmel & Uta Grosenick, Realism, Germany, 2004, illustrated in color p. 63
Patrick Bade, Tamara de Lempicka, New York, 2006, illustrated in color p. 143
CATALOGUE NOTE
Tamara de Lempicka's lustrous Portrait de la Duchesse de la Salle exemplifies the sleek aesthetic of the Roaring Twenties. Sexy, bold and ultra-stylized in its presentation, this picture and her other important pictures from the 1920s celebrate the strength and power of the modern woman. Lempicka, who was born in Poland and spent the rest of her life cultivating a glamorous international persona, came to Paris after fleeing Russia in 1918. She began exhibiting her work in the Paris salons in 1922, and through her exposure to avant-garde art, she derived a distinct style of painting that was unlike most of her male contemporaries. Impressed by the Cubists and their deconstruction of form, she applied similar techniques in her paintings. This spectacular portrait from 1925 makes particular reference to Cubism, with its highly-geometricized cityscape backdrop, but also pushes the limits of portraiture in this daring portrayal of the Duchesse.
The modeling of the figure and Lempicka's staging of the scene call to mind Bronzino's Mannerist portraits of nobility. But with this monumental oil Lempicka set new standards for the genre portraiture in the early 20th century, portraying her female subject with an air of grandeur that was normally afforded to men. According to Patrick Bade, "The portrait of the Duchesse de La Salle is one of the grandest that De Lempicka ever painted. The full length format and the traditional props of the curtain and the classical column invite comparisons with courtly and aristocratic portraits of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though the 'cubified,' nocturnal cityscape illuminated by electric lights in the background, the bobbed hair style of the Duchesse and her daringly masculine garb update the picture unmistakably to the twentieth century" (P. Bade, op. cit., p. 142).
The fashionable woman in this picture is the Greek-born Marika, Duchesse de la Salle de Rochemaure. The Duchesse earned her title by marriage in 1905, ultimately divorcing her husband and retaining a handsome alimony. She was notoriously extravagant in her spending, and she lavished her money on several women artists of her day, including Lempicka and the British painter Marlow Moss. According to Alain Blondel, the Duchesse lost her wealth in the 1930s, and retreated with her daughter Romana to an Alpine village where she lived modestly until her death in 1973. In this portrait, however, Lempicka captures the Duchesse at the height of her flamboyance, smartly dressed in riding attire and striking a swaggering pose on a red carpet.
Alain Blondel provides the following stylistic analysis of this portrait in the Catalogue raisonné: "This portrait underscores this horsewoman's domineering effect by planting her on a staircase carpeted in red. The setting, constituted by a column and a theatrically imposing drape, seems more like an entranceway into a nightclub or any other night spot than the hallway of a ducal residence. The yellow windows of the lopsided houses throw light onto the winding roads, in a fashion reminiscent of films by Murnau" (A. Blondel, op. cit., p. 149).
Lempicka must have been intrigued by the androgynous appeal of this dashing young woman, whose portrait in some ways resembles the one that Lempicka later painted of her husband Baron Kuffner in 1928. In several publicity photographs that Lempicka staged in her home, it is this portrait of the Duchesse, and not that of her husband, that hangs suggestively above her bed. In fact, Portrait de la Duchesse de la Salle has become synonymous with Lempicka's art and style. This portrait has been featured in nearly every major exhibition of the artist's work, and is emblematic of the power and sophistication of her art.
LOT 27 bottom photo
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF WOLFGANG JOOP
TAMARA DE LEMPICKA
1898 - 1980
PORTRAIT DE MADEMOISELLE POUM RACHOU
1,800,000—2,500,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 2,994,500 USD
MEASUREMENTS
measurements
36 1/4 by 18 1/4 in.
alternate measurements
92 by 46.5 cm
DESCRIPTION
Painted in 1933.
Oil on canvas
PROVENANCE
Mr. Louis Rachou & Mme Girault de Coursac (née Mademoiselle Poum Rachou), Paris (acquired from the artist)
Galerie Bailly, Paris (acquired from the above and sold: Sotheby's, New York, May 14, 1992, lot 274)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
EXHIBITED
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF WOLFGANG JOOP
TAMARA DE LEMPICKA
1898 - 1980
PORTRAIT DE MARJORIE FERRY
4,000,000—6,000,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 4,898,500 USD
MEASUREMENTS
measurements
39 3/8 by 25 5/8 in.
alternate measurements
100 by 65 cm
DESCRIPTION
Painted in 1932.
Signed Lempicka (lower left)
Oil on canvas
PROVENANCE
Marjorie Ferry, Paris (acquired from the artist in 1932, thence by descent and sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 9, 1995, lot 250)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
EXHIBITED
Paris, Salon des Tuileries, 1932, no. 1196
Paris, Atelier de la rue Méchain, Exposition personnelle, 1932
Paris, Galerie du Cygne, 1934
Paris, Galerie du Luxembourg, Tamara de Lempicka de 1925 à 1935, 1972, no. 47, illustrated in the catalogue
Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Der kühle Blick: Realismus der Zwanzigerjahre in Europa und Amerika, 2001, illustrated in color in the catalogue
London, Royal Academy of Arts & Vienna, Kunstforum Wien, Tamara de Lempicka: Art Deco Icon, 2004-05, no. 47, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Tokyo, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Fukuoka Kyushu, Municipal Museum of Art & Osaka, Santory Museum Tenpozen, Art Deco 1910-1939, 2005
Boulogne-Billancourt, Musée des Années 30, Tamara de Lempicka, 2006, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Milan, Palazzo Reale, Tamara de Lempicka, 2006-07, no. 39, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Vigo, Fundación Caixa Galicia, Tamara de Lempicka, 2007
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES
Tamara de Lempicka, Annotated Photographic Album, Archives Lempicka, Houston, 1923-33, no. 46
Pierre Berthelot, "Les expositions (dans son atelier, rue Méchain)," Beaux-Arts, Paris, no. 5, May 25, 1932, p. 20
G.C., "Tamara de Lempicka," Cose, no. 92, March, 1933, illustrated
Marc Vaux, Lempicka Collection, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 1972, no. 46
Giancarlo Marmori, Tamara de Lempicka, Milan, 1977, illustrated in color p. 101
Giancarlo Marmori, Tamara de Lempicka, The major works of Tamara de Lempicka 1925 to 1935, Milan, 1978, illustrated p. 49
Germain Bazin & Hiroyuki Itsuki, Tamara de Lempicka, Tokyo, 1980, no. 56, illustrated in color
Baroness Kizette de Lempicka-Foxhall & Charles Phillips, Passion by design, The art and times of Tamara de Lempicka, New York, 1987, illustrated in color p. 109
Ellen Thormann, Tamara de Lempicka, Kunstkritik und Künstlerinnen in Paris, Berlin, 1993, no. 55, illustrated
Gilles Néret, Tamara de Lempicka 1898-1980, Cologne, 1993, illustrated in color p. 57
Gioia Mori, Tamara de Lempicka, Parigi 1920-1938, Florence, 1994, no. 93, illustrated in color p. 192
Alain Blondel, Tamara de Lempicka, Catalogue Raisonné 1921-1979, Lausanne, 1999, no. B.166, illustrated in color p. 261
Patrick Bade, Tamara de Lempicka, New York, 2006, illustrated in color p. 193
CATALOGUE NOTE
Painted in 1932, this sultry portrait exemplifies the sleek and sexy aesthetic that defined Lempicka's art. The model is the English-born Marjorie Ferry, a cabaret singer living in Paris, whose financier husband commissioned this portrait at the beginning of the Great Depression. Lempicka transforms Ferry here into a modern-day goddess, cloaked in marble-crisp drapery in front of a Doric column. Although loosely tied to the geometric aesthetic of Cubism and the proportionality of neo-Classicism, Lempicka's painting, characterized by its razor-sharp draftsmanship, theatric lighting and sensual modelling, was unlike that of any artist of her day. Her most striking portraits, including Portrait of Marjorie Ferry, have come to personify the age of Art Deco.
In Portrait de Marjorie Ferry, every curve of the figure's flesh is rendered with imperceptible brushstrokes. Her skin appears to be incandescent as if she is bathed in silver moonlight, and her hair glows with a metallic sheen. Lempicka was receptive to the influence of her colleagues in Weimar Germany, and she readily incorporated the hyper-realism of Neue Sachlichkeit into her own work. But it was her love of the precision and classicism of the Italian Renaissance that had the most profound impact on her compositions. Lempicka frequently acknowledged her indebtedness to the Italian Old Masters and how their style profoundly impacted her art: "I discovered Italy when I was a youngster and my grandmother took me away from the cold climate of Poland, where I was born and lived, to take me to the sunny cities of Florence, Rome, Naples, Venice and Milan. It was under her attentive guidance that my eyes took in the treasures of the Italian old masters, from the Quattrocento, the Renaissance" (quoted in Alain Blondel, Tamara de Lempicka, Lausanne, 1999, p. 22).
While much has been written about Lempicka's reverence for the old masters, equally important to her as an artist were the aesthetic forces of her era, the most influential of which was the American film industry. Lempicka was enthralled with the mystique of Hollywood, eventually moving there in the 1940s with her second husband, Baron Kuffner. She invited film crews to her studio in Paris, where she staged grand entrances and posed for pictures with all the theatricality and panache of a silent film star. One oft-repeated anecdote is that Lempicka was thrilled to be mistaken once for the film actress Greta Garbo. The artist was enamored by this type of modern glamour, and it is no accident that the models in her portraits often resemble film icons from the early days of Hollywood. This platinum bombshell, trailing her bejeweled fingers along a balustrade as she casts a knowing glance over her bare shoulder, calls to mind such 1930s silver-screen legends like Garbo or Carole Lombard. As Patrick Bade explains in his monograph on the artist, "There is no doubt that de Lempicka herself was profoundly influenced by the burgeoning art form of the cinema. In the 1920s as she formed her style, the great Hollywood studios of M.G.M., Paramount, Columbia, Universal and R.K.O. began what has been termed the gold age of Hollywood and their domination of world entertainment. The French and German film industries also enjoyed a golden age of creativity, turning out many of the twentieth century's finest films in these years. The ubiquity of movies began to influence the way people looked and behaved. De Lempicka's female subjects with their heavy makeup, perfectly coiffed hair and their theatrical poses and facial expressions full of artifical pathos could have stepped out of the silver screen" (P. Bade, op. cit., p. 92).
LOT 25 second photo
TAMARA DE LEMPICKA
1898 - 1980
ARLETTE BOUCARD AUX ARUMS
800,000—1,200,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 1,482,500 USD
MEASUREMENTS
measurements
36 by 21 7/8 in.
alternate measurements
91.5 by 55.5 cm
DESCRIPTION
Painted in 1931.
Signed T. de Lempicka (lower left)
Oil on panel
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, France (sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 12, 1988, lot 406)
Private Collection (acquired at the above sale)
Barry Friedman Ltd., New York (by 1994)
Acquired from the above by the present owner
EXHIBITED
Paris, Galerie du Luxembourg, Tamara de Lempicka de 1925 à 1935, 1972, no. 42, illustrated p. 57 (titled Portrait d'Arlette Boucard)
Tokyo & Osaka, Seibu Galleries, Tamara de Lempicka, 1981
Zürich, Walter Haas, Art Déco, le Style Moderne, 1981, no. 1
London, Royal Academy of Arts & Vienna, Kunstforum Wien, Tamara de Lempicka: Art Deco Icon, 2004-05, no. 43, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Boulogne-Billancourt, Musée des Années 30, Tamara de Lempicka, 2006, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Milan, Palazzo Reale, Tamara de Lempicka, 2006-07, no. 38, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Vigo, Fundación Caixa Galicia, Tamara de Lempicka, 2007
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES
Tamara de Lempicka, Annotated Photographic Album, Archives Lempicka, Houston, 1923-33, no. 76
G.C., "Tamara de Lempicka," Cose, no. 92, March 1933, illustrated
Marc Vaux, Lempicka Collection, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 1972, no. 76
Giancarlo Marmori, Tamara de Lempicka, The major works of Tamara de Lempicka 1925 to 1935, Milan, 1978, illustrated p. 38 (titled Portrait d'Arlette Boucard)
Françoise Gilot, "Tamara de Lempicka, mystérieuse et connue," Vogue, Paris, September 1980, illustrated
Germain Bazin & Hiroyuki Itsuki, Tamara de Lempicka, Tokyo, 1980, no. 50, illustrated in color (as dating from 1930)
Ellen Thormann, Tamara de Lempicka, Kunstkritik und Künstlerinnen in Paris, Berlin, 1993, no. 70
Gioia Mori, Tamara de Lempicka, Parigi 1920-1938, Florence, 1994, no. 71, illustrated in color p. 170 (as dating from 1930)
Alain Blondel, Tamara de Lempicka, Catalogue Raisonné 1921-1979, Lausanne, 1999, no. B.154, illustrated in color p. 247
Patrick Bade, Tamara de Lempicka, New York, 2006, illustrated in color p. 187
CATALOGUE NOTE
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
EXHIBITED
Paris, Salon des Tuileries, 1932, no. 1196
Paris, Atelier de la rue Méchain, Exposition personnelle, 1932
Paris, Galerie du Cygne, 1934
Paris, Galerie du Luxembourg, Tamara de Lempicka de 1925 à 1935, 1972, no. 47, illustrated in the catalogue
Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Der kühle Blick: Realismus der Zwanzigerjahre in Europa und Amerika, 2001, illustrated in color in the catalogue
London, Royal Academy of Arts & Vienna, Kunstforum Wien, Tamara de Lempicka: Art Deco Icon, 2004-05, no. 47, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Tokyo, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Fukuoka Kyushu, Municipal Museum of Art & Osaka, Santory Museum Tenpozen, Art Deco 1910-1939, 2005
Boulogne-Billancourt, Musée des Années 30, Tamara de Lempicka, 2006, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Milan, Palazzo Reale, Tamara de Lempicka, 2006-07, no. 39, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Vigo, Fundación Caixa Galicia, Tamara de Lempicka, 2007
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES
Tamara de Lempicka, Annotated Photographic Album, Archives Lempicka, Houston, 1923-33, no. 46
Pierre Berthelot, "Les expositions (dans son atelier, rue Méchain)," Beaux-Arts, Paris, no. 5, May 25, 1932, p. 20
G.C., "Tamara de Lempicka," Cose, no. 92, March, 1933, illustrated
Marc Vaux, Lempicka Collection, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 1972, no. 46
Giancarlo Marmori, Tamara de Lempicka, Milan, 1977, illustrated in color p. 101
Giancarlo Marmori, Tamara de Lempicka, The major works of Tamara de Lempicka 1925 to 1935, Milan, 1978, illustrated p. 49
Germain Bazin & Hiroyuki Itsuki, Tamara de Lempicka, Tokyo, 1980, no. 56, illustrated in color
Baroness Kizette de Lempicka-Foxhall & Charles Phillips, Passion by design, The art and times of Tamara de Lempicka, New York, 1987, illustrated in color p. 109
Ellen Thormann, Tamara de Lempicka, Kunstkritik und Künstlerinnen in Paris, Berlin, 1993, no. 55, illustrated
Gilles Néret, Tamara de Lempicka 1898-1980, Cologne, 1993, illustrated in color p. 57
Gioia Mori, Tamara de Lempicka, Parigi 1920-1938, Florence, 1994, no. 93, illustrated in color p. 192
Alain Blondel, Tamara de Lempicka, Catalogue Raisonné 1921-1979, Lausanne, 1999, no. B.166, illustrated in color p. 261
Patrick Bade, Tamara de Lempicka, New York, 2006, illustrated in color p. 193
CATALOGUE NOTE
Painted in 1932, this sultry portrait exemplifies the sleek and sexy aesthetic that defined Lempicka's art. The model is the English-born Marjorie Ferry, a cabaret singer living in Paris, whose financier husband commissioned this portrait at the beginning of the Great Depression. Lempicka transforms Ferry here into a modern-day goddess, cloaked in marble-crisp drapery in front of a Doric column. Although loosely tied to the geometric aesthetic of Cubism and the proportionality of neo-Classicism, Lempicka's painting, characterized by its razor-sharp draftsmanship, theatric lighting and sensual modelling, was unlike that of any artist of her day. Her most striking portraits, including Portrait of Marjorie Ferry, have come to personify the age of Art Deco.
In Portrait de Marjorie Ferry, every curve of the figure's flesh is rendered with imperceptible brushstrokes. Her skin appears to be incandescent as if she is bathed in silver moonlight, and her hair glows with a metallic sheen. Lempicka was receptive to the influence of her colleagues in Weimar Germany, and she readily incorporated the hyper-realism of Neue Sachlichkeit into her own work. But it was her love of the precision and classicism of the Italian Renaissance that had the most profound impact on her compositions. Lempicka frequently acknowledged her indebtedness to the Italian Old Masters and how their style profoundly impacted her art: "I discovered Italy when I was a youngster and my grandmother took me away from the cold climate of Poland, where I was born and lived, to take me to the sunny cities of Florence, Rome, Naples, Venice and Milan. It was under her attentive guidance that my eyes took in the treasures of the Italian old masters, from the Quattrocento, the Renaissance" (quoted in Alain Blondel, Tamara de Lempicka, Lausanne, 1999, p. 22).
While much has been written about Lempicka's reverence for the old masters, equally important to her as an artist were the aesthetic forces of her era, the most influential of which was the American film industry. Lempicka was enthralled with the mystique of Hollywood, eventually moving there in the 1940s with her second husband, Baron Kuffner. She invited film crews to her studio in Paris, where she staged grand entrances and posed for pictures with all the theatricality and panache of a silent film star. One oft-repeated anecdote is that Lempicka was thrilled to be mistaken once for the film actress Greta Garbo. The artist was enamored by this type of modern glamour, and it is no accident that the models in her portraits often resemble film icons from the early days of Hollywood. This platinum bombshell, trailing her bejeweled fingers along a balustrade as she casts a knowing glance over her bare shoulder, calls to mind such 1930s silver-screen legends like Garbo or Carole Lombard. As Patrick Bade explains in his monograph on the artist, "There is no doubt that de Lempicka herself was profoundly influenced by the burgeoning art form of the cinema. In the 1920s as she formed her style, the great Hollywood studios of M.G.M., Paramount, Columbia, Universal and R.K.O. began what has been termed the gold age of Hollywood and their domination of world entertainment. The French and German film industries also enjoyed a golden age of creativity, turning out many of the twentieth century's finest films in these years. The ubiquity of movies began to influence the way people looked and behaved. De Lempicka's female subjects with their heavy makeup, perfectly coiffed hair and their theatrical poses and facial expressions full of artifical pathos could have stepped out of the silver screen" (P. Bade, op. cit., p. 92).
LOT 25 second photo
TAMARA DE LEMPICKA
1898 - 1980
ARLETTE BOUCARD AUX ARUMS
800,000—1,200,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 1,482,500 USD
MEASUREMENTS
measurements
36 by 21 7/8 in.
alternate measurements
91.5 by 55.5 cm
DESCRIPTION
Painted in 1931.
Signed T. de Lempicka (lower left)
Oil on panel
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, France (sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 12, 1988, lot 406)
Private Collection (acquired at the above sale)
Barry Friedman Ltd., New York (by 1994)
Acquired from the above by the present owner
EXHIBITED
Paris, Galerie du Luxembourg, Tamara de Lempicka de 1925 à 1935, 1972, no. 42, illustrated p. 57 (titled Portrait d'Arlette Boucard)
Tokyo & Osaka, Seibu Galleries, Tamara de Lempicka, 1981
Zürich, Walter Haas, Art Déco, le Style Moderne, 1981, no. 1
London, Royal Academy of Arts & Vienna, Kunstforum Wien, Tamara de Lempicka: Art Deco Icon, 2004-05, no. 43, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Boulogne-Billancourt, Musée des Années 30, Tamara de Lempicka, 2006, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Milan, Palazzo Reale, Tamara de Lempicka, 2006-07, no. 38, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Vigo, Fundación Caixa Galicia, Tamara de Lempicka, 2007
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES
Tamara de Lempicka, Annotated Photographic Album, Archives Lempicka, Houston, 1923-33, no. 76
G.C., "Tamara de Lempicka," Cose, no. 92, March 1933, illustrated
Marc Vaux, Lempicka Collection, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 1972, no. 76
Giancarlo Marmori, Tamara de Lempicka, The major works of Tamara de Lempicka 1925 to 1935, Milan, 1978, illustrated p. 38 (titled Portrait d'Arlette Boucard)
Françoise Gilot, "Tamara de Lempicka, mystérieuse et connue," Vogue, Paris, September 1980, illustrated
Germain Bazin & Hiroyuki Itsuki, Tamara de Lempicka, Tokyo, 1980, no. 50, illustrated in color (as dating from 1930)
Ellen Thormann, Tamara de Lempicka, Kunstkritik und Künstlerinnen in Paris, Berlin, 1993, no. 70
Gioia Mori, Tamara de Lempicka, Parigi 1920-1938, Florence, 1994, no. 71, illustrated in color p. 170 (as dating from 1930)
Alain Blondel, Tamara de Lempicka, Catalogue Raisonné 1921-1979, Lausanne, 1999, no. B.154, illustrated in color p. 247
Patrick Bade, Tamara de Lempicka, New York, 2006, illustrated in color p. 187
CATALOGUE NOTE
Lempicka's dynamic still life from 1931 features a portrait of Arlette Boucard, a young woman the artist portrayed as an adolescent in 1928. Arlette was the daughter of Pierre Boucard, a renowned physician and one of the artist's most important patrons. For this new composition, Lempicka pairs a photograph of the girl with a bouquet of arums or calla lilies, a dual symbol of purity and seduction and an allusion to Arlette's passage from the innocence of youth to the worldliness of womanhood. Similar to the suggestive flower compositions that Georgia O'Keefe completed around the same time, Lempicka's flowers are an overt reference to the blossoming sexuality of the femme fatale in the photograph.
In his monograph on the artist, Patrick Bade has written the following analysis of this captivating picture: "The almost monochromatic Arlette Boucard with arums is a still life that displays several characteristic features of De Lempicka's art, such as her love of transparent and reflective surfaces and the highly eroticized forms of the lilies that reach up to the top edge of the canvas much as the spiralling figures do in her female portraits" (P. Bade, op. cit., p. 186).
LOT 26 third photo
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF WOLFGANG JOOP
TAMARA DE LEMPICKA
1898 - 1980
PORTRAIT DE LA DUCHESSE DE LA SALLE
4,000,000—6,000,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 4,450,500 USD
MEASUREMENTS
measurements
63 3/4 by 38 1/4 in.
alternate measurements
162 by 97 cm
DESCRIPTION
Painted in 1925.
Signed T. de Lempicka (upper right)
Oil on canvas
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, France (by 1967)
Galerie du Luxembourg, Paris (by 1988)
Barry Friedman, Ltd., New York (by 1988)
Acquired from the above in 1991
EXHIBITED
Milan, Bottega di Poesia, Tamara de Lempicka, 1925, no. 15, illustrated in the catalogue
Paris, Salon d'Automne, 1926, no. 1446
Paris, Galerie du Luxembourg, Tamara de Lempicka de 1925 à 1935, 1972, no. 9, illustrated in the catalogue
Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris 1925, 1976-77, no. 146
Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Tendenzen der Zwanziger Jahre, 1977, no. 101
London, Hayward Gallery, Neue Sachlichkeit and German Realism of the Twenties, 1978-79, no. 181
Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, La famille des portraits, 1980
Tokyo & Osaka, Seibu Galleries, Tamara de Lempicka, 1981
Berlin, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Androgyn, 1986, no. 8
Mexico, Museo Nacional de Arte, Tamara de Lempicka, 1989
Montréal, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Les années 20, l'âge des métropoles, 1991, no. 360
Montréal, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tamara de Lempicka, 1994
Rome, Accademia di Francia, Villa Medici, Tamara de Lempicka, Tra eleganza e trasgressione, 1994, no. 10, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Der kühle Blick: Realismus der Zwanzigerjahre in Europa und Amerika, 2001, illustrated in color in the catalogue
London, Royal Academy of Arts & Bilbao, Guggenheim Museum, Paris: Capital of the Arts, 1900-1968, 2002, no. 66, illustrated in color in the catalogue
London, Royal Academy of Arts & Vienna, Kunstforum Wien, Tamara de Lempicka: Art Deco Icon, 2004-05, no. 17, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Boulogne-Billancourt, Musée des Années 30, Tamara de Lempicka, 2006, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Milan, Palazzo Reale, Tamara de Lempicka, 2006-07, no. 18, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Vigo, Fundación Caixa Galicia, Tamara de Lempicka, 2007
Madrid, Fundación Mapfre, Amazonas del Arte Nuevo, 2008
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES
Tamara de Lempicka, Annotated Photographic Album, Archives Lempicka, Houston, 1923-33, no. 37
Pietro Torriano, "Tamara de Lempicka," Emporium, vol. LXII, no. 372, Bergamo, December, 1925, illustrated p. 402
Die Dame, Berlin, February, 1927, illustrated p. 32
Die Wochenschau, Essen, June 17, 1927, illustrated
Didier de Sceaux, "Un peintre: Tamara de Lempicka," Le Forum, Paris, July 12, 1927, illustrated
"Recent Paintings by Tamara de Lempicka," Vanity Fair, New York, February, 1927, illustrated p. 47
Marc Vaux, Lempicka Collection, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 1972, no. 37
Giancarlo Marmori, Tamara de Lempicka, Milan, 1977, illustrated in color p. 53
Giancarlo Marmori, Tamara de Lempicka, The major works of Tamara de Lempicka 1925 to 1935, Milan, 1978, illustrated in color p. 17
Germain Bazin & Hiroyuki Itsuki, Tamara de Lempicka, Tokyo, 1980, no. 11, illustrated in color
Alberto Arbasino, "Tamara in Hollywood," F.M.R., no. 18, February-March, 1986, illustrated on the cover
Michel Frizot, Le Passé Composé - Les 6 x 13 de J.-H. Lartigue, P.U.F., Paris, 1987
Wolfgang Joop, "Tamara de Lempicka, Träume von Mythen und Moden," Pan, Burda GmbH, Offenburg, May, 1987, illustrated p. 10
Baroness Kizette de Lempicka-Foxhall & Charles Phillips, Passion by design, The art and times of Tamara de Lempicka, New York, 1987, illustrated in color p. 51
Jean Clair, Les années 20 - L'âge des métropoles, Montreal, 1991, no. 360, illustrated p. 565
Ellen Thormann, Tamara de Lempicka, Kunstkritik und Künstlerinnen in Paris, Berlin, 1993, no. 55, illustrated in color on the cover
Gilles Néret, Tamara de Lempicka 1898-1980, Cologne, 1993, illustrated in color p. 10
Gioia Mori, Tamara de Lempicka, Parigi 1920-1938, Florence, 1994, no. 26, illustrated in color p. 125
Alain Blondel, Tamara de Lempicka, Catalogue Raisonné 1921-1979, Lausanne, 1999, no. B.72, illustrated in color p. 149
Kerstin Stremmel & Uta Grosenick, Realism, Germany, 2004, illustrated in color p. 63
Patrick Bade, Tamara de Lempicka, New York, 2006, illustrated in color p. 143
CATALOGUE NOTE
Tamara de Lempicka's lustrous Portrait de la Duchesse de la Salle exemplifies the sleek aesthetic of the Roaring Twenties. Sexy, bold and ultra-stylized in its presentation, this picture and her other important pictures from the 1920s celebrate the strength and power of the modern woman. Lempicka, who was born in Poland and spent the rest of her life cultivating a glamorous international persona, came to Paris after fleeing Russia in 1918. She began exhibiting her work in the Paris salons in 1922, and through her exposure to avant-garde art, she derived a distinct style of painting that was unlike most of her male contemporaries. Impressed by the Cubists and their deconstruction of form, she applied similar techniques in her paintings. This spectacular portrait from 1925 makes particular reference to Cubism, with its highly-geometricized cityscape backdrop, but also pushes the limits of portraiture in this daring portrayal of the Duchesse.
The modeling of the figure and Lempicka's staging of the scene call to mind Bronzino's Mannerist portraits of nobility. But with this monumental oil Lempicka set new standards for the genre portraiture in the early 20th century, portraying her female subject with an air of grandeur that was normally afforded to men. According to Patrick Bade, "The portrait of the Duchesse de La Salle is one of the grandest that De Lempicka ever painted. The full length format and the traditional props of the curtain and the classical column invite comparisons with courtly and aristocratic portraits of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though the 'cubified,' nocturnal cityscape illuminated by electric lights in the background, the bobbed hair style of the Duchesse and her daringly masculine garb update the picture unmistakably to the twentieth century" (P. Bade, op. cit., p. 142).
The fashionable woman in this picture is the Greek-born Marika, Duchesse de la Salle de Rochemaure. The Duchesse earned her title by marriage in 1905, ultimately divorcing her husband and retaining a handsome alimony. She was notoriously extravagant in her spending, and she lavished her money on several women artists of her day, including Lempicka and the British painter Marlow Moss. According to Alain Blondel, the Duchesse lost her wealth in the 1930s, and retreated with her daughter Romana to an Alpine village where she lived modestly until her death in 1973. In this portrait, however, Lempicka captures the Duchesse at the height of her flamboyance, smartly dressed in riding attire and striking a swaggering pose on a red carpet.
Alain Blondel provides the following stylistic analysis of this portrait in the Catalogue raisonné: "This portrait underscores this horsewoman's domineering effect by planting her on a staircase carpeted in red. The setting, constituted by a column and a theatrically imposing drape, seems more like an entranceway into a nightclub or any other night spot than the hallway of a ducal residence. The yellow windows of the lopsided houses throw light onto the winding roads, in a fashion reminiscent of films by Murnau" (A. Blondel, op. cit., p. 149).
Lempicka must have been intrigued by the androgynous appeal of this dashing young woman, whose portrait in some ways resembles the one that Lempicka later painted of her husband Baron Kuffner in 1928. In several publicity photographs that Lempicka staged in her home, it is this portrait of the Duchesse, and not that of her husband, that hangs suggestively above her bed. In fact, Portrait de la Duchesse de la Salle has become synonymous with Lempicka's art and style. This portrait has been featured in nearly every major exhibition of the artist's work, and is emblematic of the power and sophistication of her art.
LOT 27 bottom photo
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF WOLFGANG JOOP
TAMARA DE LEMPICKA
1898 - 1980
PORTRAIT DE MADEMOISELLE POUM RACHOU
1,800,000—2,500,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 2,994,500 USD
MEASUREMENTS
measurements
36 1/4 by 18 1/4 in.
alternate measurements
92 by 46.5 cm
DESCRIPTION
Painted in 1933.
Oil on canvas
PROVENANCE
Mr. Louis Rachou & Mme Girault de Coursac (née Mademoiselle Poum Rachou), Paris (acquired from the artist)
Galerie Bailly, Paris (acquired from the above and sold: Sotheby's, New York, May 14, 1992, lot 274)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
EXHIBITED
Paris, Salon des Tuileries, 1934, no. 1203
Rome, Accademia di Francia, Villa Medici, Tamara de Lempicka, Tra eleganza e trasgressione, 1994, no. 16, illustrated in color in the catalogue (titled Girl with teddy bear and dating from 1934)
Montréal, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tamara de Lempicka, 1994
London, Royal Academy of Arts & Vienna, Kunstforum Wien, Tamara de Lempicka: Art Deco Icon, 2004-05, no. 51, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Milan, Palazzo Reale, Tamara de Lempicka, 2006-07, no. 43, illustrated in color in the catalogue
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES
Tamara de Lempicka, Annotated Photographic Album, Archives Lempicka, Houston, 1923-33, no. 16
Marc Vaux, Lempicka Collection, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 1972, no. 16
Gioia Mori, Tamara de Lempicka, Parigi 1920-1938, Florence, 1994, no. 107, illustrated in color p. 206 (as dating from 1934)
Alain Blondel, Tamara de Lempicka, Catalogue Raisonné 1921-1979, Lausanne, 1999, no. B.175, illustrated in color p. 270
Patrick Bade, Tamara de Lempicka, New York, 2006, illustrated in color p. 83
CATALOGUE NOTE
Rome, Accademia di Francia, Villa Medici, Tamara de Lempicka, Tra eleganza e trasgressione, 1994, no. 16, illustrated in color in the catalogue (titled Girl with teddy bear and dating from 1934)
Montréal, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tamara de Lempicka, 1994
London, Royal Academy of Arts & Vienna, Kunstforum Wien, Tamara de Lempicka: Art Deco Icon, 2004-05, no. 51, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Milan, Palazzo Reale, Tamara de Lempicka, 2006-07, no. 43, illustrated in color in the catalogue
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES
Tamara de Lempicka, Annotated Photographic Album, Archives Lempicka, Houston, 1923-33, no. 16
Marc Vaux, Lempicka Collection, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 1972, no. 16
Gioia Mori, Tamara de Lempicka, Parigi 1920-1938, Florence, 1994, no. 107, illustrated in color p. 206 (as dating from 1934)
Alain Blondel, Tamara de Lempicka, Catalogue Raisonné 1921-1979, Lausanne, 1999, no. B.175, illustrated in color p. 270
Patrick Bade, Tamara de Lempicka, New York, 2006, illustrated in color p. 83
CATALOGUE NOTE
Lempicka's Portrait of Mademoiselle Poum Rachou is one of her most recognizably Cubist-inspired compositions, calling to mind the 1920s Le Petit déjeuner series of Fernand Léger. One can readily see the geometric basis of the composition, especially the cylindrical limbs of the stuffed bear and the repetitive spirals of the little girl's ringlets. Lempicka also invests the composition with a distinct sense of motion, positioning the girl in mid-step and billowing her dress as if it is blown by a gust of wind from the left.
According to Alain Blondel, the present work was inspired by a portrait that Lempicka completed of her daughter Kizette in 1922. In this more modern interpretation of the subject, the girl is much more stylized, with a metallicized appearance typical of Lempicka's Art Deco portraits. As Blondel notes, "in a 1922 portrait of her daughter, Lempicka had Kizette hold a most complacent teddy bear. Here, the stuffed toy is endowed with overly bright eyes, as if ready to rebel" (Alain Blondel, op. cit., p. 270).
According to Alain Blondel, the present work was inspired by a portrait that Lempicka completed of her daughter Kizette in 1922. In this more modern interpretation of the subject, the girl is much more stylized, with a metallicized appearance typical of Lempicka's Art Deco portraits. As Blondel notes, "in a 1922 portrait of her daughter, Lempicka had Kizette hold a most complacent teddy bear. Here, the stuffed toy is endowed with overly bright eyes, as if ready to rebel" (Alain Blondel, op. cit., p. 270).
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Art Hostage comments:
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Wonder which ones will re-appear at the Dutch Scheringa museum robbed last week ??
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Did the publicity about the theft of an important De Limpicka in Holland cause these pictures to realise a higher price, especially during the current economic times ????
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The value of the stolen De Limpicka has doubled from the $2.5 million paid to a value, after this sale, of about $5-6 million, more if it were to bought from a dealer, considerably more !!!
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Wonder if the Underworld price has gone up ???
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