Tamara de Lempicka
| Tamara de Lempicka | |
|---|---|
Tamara de Lempicka, portrait photograph by Dora Kallmus of d'Ora Studio, Paris, 1929
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| Born |
Maria Górska 16 May 1898 Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire |
| Died | 18 March 1980 (aged 81) Cuernavaca, Mexico |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Education | Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Art Deco |
Tamara Łempicka, commonly known as Tamara de Lempicka (16 May 1898 – 18 March 1980), was a Polish Art Deco painter and "the first woman artist to be a glamour star". Influenced by Cubism, Lempicka became the leading representative of the Art Deco style across two continents, a favorite artist of many Hollywood stars, referred to as 'the baroness with a brush'. She was the most fashionable portrait painter of her generation among the haute bourgeoisie and aristocracy, painting duchesses and grand dukes and socialites. Through her network of friends, she was also able to display her paintings in the most elite salons of the era. Lempicka was criticized as well as admired for her 'perverse Ingrism', referring to her modern restatement of the master Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, as displayed in her work Group of Four Nudes (1925) among other studies.
She was born Maria Górska in Warsaw,Congress Poland under the rulership of the Russian Empire, into a wealthy and prominent family. Lempicka was the daughter of Boris Gurwik-Górski, a Russian Jewish attorney for a French trading company, and Malwina Dekler, a Polish socialite who met him at one of the European spas. Maria had two siblings and was the middle child; her older brother was named Stanczyk and her younger sister was named Adrienne. She attended a boarding school in Lausanne, Switzerland, and spent the winter of 1911 with her grandmother in Italy and on the French Riviera, where she was treated to her first taste of the Great Masters of Italian painting. In 1912, her parents divorced, and Maria went to live with her rich Aunt Stefa in St. Petersburg, Russia. When her mother remarried, she became determined to break away to make a life of her own. In 1913, at the age of fifteen, while attending the opera, Maria spotted the man she became determined to marry. She promoted her campaign through her well-connected uncle, and in 1916 she married Tadeusz Łempicki (1888–1951) in St. Petersburg—a well-known ladies' man, gadabout, and lawyer by title, who was tempted by the significant dowry.
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