Tamara Lempicka (1898 Warsaw - 1980 Cuernavaca), Monastery in Tuscany, circa 1961.

oil, canvas, 35 × 27 cm, signed p.d.: 'LEMPICKA'
on the reverse a sticker from the Art-Mel gallery in Paris

Provenance:
- Collection of Michel Georges-Michel, Paris, until 1961
- Art-Mel gallery, Paris
- private collection, Paris, until 1996
- private collection, Warsaw

Exhibited:
- Tamara Lempicka a art déco, Villa la Fleur, Konstancin-Jeziorna, September 17, 2022 - March 12, 2023
- Tamara Lempicka - a woman on a journey, National Museum in Lublin, March 18 - August 14, 2022

Literature: - Tamara Lempicka a art déco. Tradition and Modernity, exhibition catalog, Villla la Fleur, Konstancin-Jeziorna, Warsaw 2022, cat. no. 68, p. 169 (ill.) -Tamara Lempicka - a woman on the move, exhibition catalog, National Museum in Lublin, Lublin 2022, p. 45 (ill.)
-Alain Blondel, Tamara de Lempicka. Catalogue raisonné 1921-1979, Lausanne 1999, cat. no. B.433 (also online)


"Lempicka painted pure landscape rarely. After only a few pictures depicting the urban landscape painted in the early 1920s, referring to the works of André Lhote, fragments of cities found their place in her portrait backgrounds. They were elements that emphasized metropolitanity and modernity. The artist returned to the landscape as the subject of her paintings in the 1960s and 1970s in her spatula-painted, impressionistic, atmospheric compositions with subdued light colors" (Tamara Lempicka, exhibition catalog, National Museum in Krakow, Krakow 2023, p. 154).

"The grays and beiges (...) are a reference to Renaissance monochrome paintings derived from a medieval technique called grisaille. The term, which art historians use to describe several different things, originally referred to the restrained use of color (usually a range of grays - hence the name - with the addition of black and white), over time increasingly used to achieve a painterly imitation of sculptural elements. (...) Tamara's choice of putty was intuitive, but the choice turned out to be, apt: the homage to the happy past now took on new romantic meanings - it allowed the method to be linked to the technique of fresco - and Lempicka's brilliance, both in terms of composition and color, was given a new setting. Although the Paris press did not focus exclusively on praising the spatula-painted paintings, the reviews were enthusiastic enough to ignite Tamara's hopes. "La Revue de Deux Mondes" of July 1 picked out the putty-painted paintings: "While the portraits of the 1930s and the abstract compositions of the 1950s are characterized by precision of line and colors worthy of Ingres and Picasso, the paintings created in 1960 have blurred contours and a uniform range of colors. Swans, views of Venice, pigeons - each subject becomes a pretext for a symphony [of colors], from pearly gray to pale beiges and pinkish sepia. We have the opportunity to admire the proficiency of the artist, who is able to treat the models in such different ways, each time impressing with her mastery."