Tamara de Lempicka

Douglas & Vibeke Bergeron, USA
Sale: MacDougall's, London, 29th November 2007, lot 78
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Paris, Galerie André Weill, Hélène Gallet et Tamara de Lempicka, 1955, n.n.
Tokyo, Isetan Art Museum (& travelling in Japan), Tamara de Lempicka, 1997, no. 60
Rome, Complesso del Vittoriano, Tamara de Lempicka, La Regina del Moderno, 2011, no. 71, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Paris, Pinacothèque de Paris, Tamara de Lempicka, la Reine de l'Art déco, 2013, no. 102, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Alain Blondel, Lempicka, Catalogue raisonné, 1921-1979, Lausanne, 1999, no. B.271, illustrated p. 342
Tamara de Lempicka (exhibition catalogue), Milan, Palazzo Reale, 2006, illustrated p. 29
Tamara de Lempicka et son époque (exhibition catalogue), Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art & Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, 2010, illustrated p. 10

The panel is sound. UV examination reveals several small spots of retouching in places to the wooden background, all away from the composition. There are a few minor abrasions in particular to the edges of the panel. This work is in overall good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A Trompe-l'Œil painting with a Botticelli was painted circa 1946, during a time when Tamara de Lempicka was increasingly focussing on still life as a theme of paramount importance within her work. Although the artist’s work of this period was dominated by the genre, she employed the element of trompe l’oeil only rarely, perhaps due in part to the technical complexities of executing such a highly finished and immensely detailed paint surface. Within the present work, the intricately re-created black and white reproduction of the Botticelli contrasts with the exquisite simplicity of the wooden background, bare save for a key hanging on a hook to the right of the composition. The key was a recurrent motif within Lempicka’s still lifes, perhaps signifying the artist’s search for creative and philosophical enlightenment.

The exquisitely reproduced detail at the centre of A Trompe-l'Œil painting with a Botticelli is taken from Sandro Botticelli’s Madonna of the Pomegranate (circa 1487), which resides in the collection of the Galeria Degli Uffizi in Florence. De Lempicka’s veneration for the art of the Renaissance masters was born at the age of eleven when she visited Italy with her grandmother, a trip which - her daughter, Kizette, recalled - was to exert a profound influence on the artist: ‘Madame took her protégé through every museum she could find in Florence, in Rome, in Venice, always talking, instructing, pointing out the Renaissance masters, explaining the modelling of a cheek, the foreshortening of a hand, composition, chiaroscuro, impasto. It was a trip the young girl would never forget’ (quoted in: Tamara de Lempicka: Art Deco Icon (exhibition catalogue), London, Royal Academy of Arts & Vienna, Kunstforum, 2004-05, p. 17). Within A Trompe-l'Œil painting with a Botticelli, Lempicka’s engagement with the creative tenets she first encountered on her childhood visit to the home of the Renaissance masters reaches a peak of technical perfection.