Born in Warsaw in 1898, Tamara de Lempicka was the middle child of a Polish lawyer and a socialite. She attended boarding school in Switzerland and travelled around Italy and the French Riviera with her grandmother. Her parents divorced in 1912 and Tamara moved to St Petersburg, Russia, to live with her aunt. In 1916, while attending an opera, she spotted the man she would marry, Tadeusz Lempicki, a lawyer and notorious ladies' man.
With the onset of the Russian Revolution one year later, Tadeusz was arrested by the Bolsheviks. Tamara was able to secure his release and the family fled Russia, along with much of the aristocracy. They arrived in Paris in 1918 where Tamara enrolled, and studied briefly, at the Academic De La Grande Chaumiere in Montparnasse. She then moved to the Academie Ranson, studying under Maurice Denis.
The Career of Tamara de Lempicka Begins
Tamara gave birth to her first child while the family lived off the money raised from selling family jewels. She quickly developed a unique artistic style, described as "novel, clean, precise and elegant."
At her first show in Milan in 1925, Tamara became an instant hit among the local aristocracy, painting portraits for dukes, duchesses and socialites. She could command 50,000 French Francs per portrait, approximately $20,000 in today's money. Tamara was desperate to paint the famous Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italy's poet, novelist and ladies' man, and, despite visiting him twice at his villa, was refused the commission.
!n 1929, she painted the iconic Tamara in the Green Bugatti, for the German fashion magazine, Die Dame. She was, by this time, a famous bohemian in Paris. Friends with the likes of Picasso and Cocteau and well-known for her high libido and bisexual affairs, Tamara was a notorious figure in the art world.
Such a lifestyle came at a high price, both her husband and daughter, Kizette, were much neglected, although she painted Kizette on many occasions.
During the 1930s, she continued to paint the upper classes, most notable members of the European royalty. In 1933, after divorcing Tadeusz, she married Baron Kuffner. The pair had become lovers after he had commissioned a painting of his then mistress in 1928.
Tamara lived through some of the biggest events of the 20th century. She was generally unaffected by the Great Depression but World War Two influenced her greatly and added new subjects to her paintings; most notably common people and even a few Christian Saints.
Tamara's Later Life
In 1939 that Tamara and her husband decided to settle in the USA after a long vacation. Her work was shown in New York and the couple moved in to their home in Beverley Hills. Tamaea was popular among the Hollywood elite and became known as the 'Baroness with a brush'.
During the war she completed some relief work and managed to free her daughter from Nazi-occupied France in 1941. Two years later the couple moved to New York and despite a decline in her popularity as a 'society painter', she still partied and socialised as before.
Tamara Retires As An Exhibiting Artist
Once again she added new subject matters to her painting and painted some still lifes and abstracts. Tamara also changed her painting style, from using brushes to a palette knife. This change now well-received by the public and after her 1962 display, where her work was criticised, she vowed never to exhibit again.
The Baron died in 1962 of a heart attack, prompting Tamara to sell her possessions and make 3 around the world trips by ship. She relocated to Houston, Texas, to spend more time with her family. Here Kizette began working for her mother as her manager and secretary but due to Tamara's controlling behaviour, their relationship became increasingly strained.
In 1978 Tamara moved to Mexico where she lived in a community of aging aristocrats and former socialites. She died in her sleep on March 19, 1980, attended by her daughter.
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