Tamara in the green Bugatti
| Tamara in the green Bugatti |
|---|
| Tamara de Lempicka , 1929 |
| oil on wood |
| 35 × 27 cm |
| Private collection, probably Basel.
Link to the picture |
Tamara in the green Bugatti , also known as my portrait or autoportrait , is a self-portrait and one of the most famous paintings by the Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka from 1929. The picture, which is now in a private collection, was painted in oil on wood and has the dimensions 35 × 27 cm. It was commissioned for the cover of the Berliner Illustrierte Die Dame .
description
In the self-portrait , the artist sits at the wheel of a green automobile and looks at the viewer from this position with half-open eyes. The vehicle represents a Bugatti of an unknown type, some details of which can be seen in the painted section. The vehicle has a door with a door handle in the front door area (whereas most Bugattis have it at the rear) and steep windows without a slope. The window pillar ends at the top in a black closed hood and a rain flap that is supposed to protect the window from rain. The protagonist holds the black steering wheel with her left hand, which is wearing a light brown glove . She is completely wrapped in a gray cloak, which forms a puffed-up collar, on her head she wears a gray driver's cap with a chin strap , under which a little blonde hair only shows in the area under the left ear. The lips are made up very red and the eyes are recognizable with eyeliner and mascara .
Emergence
Tamara de Lempicka painted the picture in 1929 on behalf of the editors of the Berlin women's magazine Die Dame . According to an anecdote, the editor had left the artist with the message “You look so great in your car that I would like to meet you” and asked her to paint a picture of herself in her yellow Renault . Lempicka had, however, been designing cover designs for the magazine since 1927, including her picture The Orange Scarf as one of the first and in 1929 St. Moritz , the portrait of a young woman with a ski pole.
By this time Tamara de Lempicka was already enjoying international success as a portrait painter and was established as a femme fatale in Paris . In 1928 she separated from her husband Tadusz de Lempicki, in the same year she met the Hungarian baron Raoul Kuffner and became his lover (after she had portrayed his mistress Nana de Herrera). She tailored her living environment to the total work of art Tamara de Lempicki, every detail of her apartment in Montparnasse , designed by the award-winning architect Robert Mallet-Stevens , was subordinated to this. Accordingly, she decided to choose a green Bugatti for her self-portrait instead of her own car , which, in her opinion, suited her better. According to the company, they painted the picture in Monte Carlo , which already at that time as the Riviera gathering of glitterati was.
interpretation
Tamara de Lempicka was inspired for her self-portrait, among other things, by photographs by the artist Thérèse Bonney from 1925, which shows her behind the wheel of her automobile in front of the Eiffel Tower , as well as by creations by the designer Sonia Delaunay , which were used for the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris et Industriels Modernes 1925 created travel clothing including the matching car paintwork.
Just like Bonney's photographs, the image of the woman at the wheel of the automobile equated modernity with the mobility and freedom of women. It was supposed to show that women could go their own way in the modern world. She uses the fashionably dressed woman's body as a symbol of the new times and chooses a green car that matches her outfit in color.
However, the self-portrait is also viewed in the context of the artist's self-staging. She had established good contacts to well-known photographers very early on, whom she photographed regularly. In 1928 she had Thérèse Bonney herself portray her as a painter using the picture of her husband Tadeusz; further portrait photographs were taken by Pola Negri (1925), Madame d'Ora (1928) and Studio Piaz (around 1930). In 1928 her bedroom was photographed by the photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue with two large-format portraits (Dr. Pierre Boucard in the foreground as a half-finished charcoal drawing, the Duchess de la Salle as a painting above the bed) and a lacquer picture she designed of two women nudes wrapped around the head of the bed . Despite the absence of the artist, this “portrait” is characterized by the noticeable femininity of the resident.
supporting documents
- ↑ after Penck 2004, p. 29.
- ↑ after Penck 2004, p. 60.
- ↑ a b c d Tag Gronberg: Le peintre installé par la femme - artists and femininity. In: Kunstforum Wien & Royal Academy of Arts London 2004.
- ↑ Kizette de Lempicka-Foxhall, Charles Philipps: Tamara de Lempicka. Passionate painter - femme fatale of the 20s. Heyne Verlag, Munich 1987.
literature
- Kunstforum Wien, Royal Academy of Arts London (Ed.): Tamara de Lempicka. Art Deco femme fatale. Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit 2004. ISBN 3-7757-1434-0
- Gilles Néret: Tamara de Lempicka 1898–1980. Taschen Verlag, Cologne 1999. ISBN 3-8228-6593-1
- Stefanie Penck: Tamara de Lempicka. Prestel Verlag, Munich 2004. ISBN 3-7913-3170-1