Tamara de Lempicka

The family of the artist
Barry Friedman, New York

Rome, Académie de France, Tamara de Lempicka, Tra eleganza e trasgressione, 1994, no.52
Tokyo, Istan Museum; Hiroshima, Museum of Art; Nagoya, Matsuzakaya Museum & Osaka, Daimaru Museum, Tamara de Lempicka, 1997, no.54
Mexico City, Palace of Fine Arts, Tamara de Lempicka, June - September 2009
Rome, Complesso del Vittoriano, Tamara de Lempicka, La regina del moderno, 10 March - 10 July 2011, illustrated in the catalogue p.287

M.Calvesi and A.Borghese, Tamara de Lempicka, Tra eleganza e trasgressione, Rome: Leonardo Atre, 1994, p.89, no.52 illustrated
A.Blondel and U.Hirohi, Tamara de Lempicka, Tokyo: Brain Trust, 1997, p.103, no.54 illustrated 
A.Blondel, Tamara de Lempicka, Catalogue Raisonné 1921-1979, Lausanne: Acatos, 1999, p.331, no.252 illustrated

Original canvas which has slightly slackened on the stretcher and is buckling along the top edge. The surface is covered in a layer of dirt and discoloured varnish. There is craquelure and paint shrinkage in places. There are frame abrasions along the edges. There are two rows of minor indentations in the upper left corner. Examination under UV reveals some scattered areas of retouching to the upper left corner and in the drapery. Held in a silver painted wooden frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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The present work is part of a series of still lifes painted by Lempicka during the early 1940s at either her country home in Connecticut or in Manhattan. The simple and stylish scene evokes the luxury of the age, even prompting Alain Blondel to observe that ‘the whole thing could be a shop window at Tiffany’s’ (A.Blondel, Tamara de Lempicka, Catalogue Raisonné 1921-1979, Lausanne, 1999, p.331). The silvery fabric also brings to mind the 16th century Venetian portraits of the wealthy elite as painted by Veronese for example. Lilies were a popular feature in the artist's work. 'If Lempicka ever swore her loyalty to anything in life, it would be to these flowers' (ibid., p.300).