Tamara De Lempicka at Auction

Born, most likely, in Moscow in 1895 (though she liked to say it was Poland in 1902) to a wealthy family that emigrated, before the second world war, first to Paris, and then to California and New York, de Lempicka was glamorous, spoilt, demanding and bisexual. All of those attributes emerged in her painting.

Two of the pictures here show at her dramatic best, and are even stronger in the flesh than they are in the catalogue. The 1932 portrait of Marjorie Ferry (pictured above), which Mr Joop bought in 1995 for $500,000 and for which he is now asking $4m-6m, shows a figure resembling Carole Lombard wrapped only in a sheet, casting a knowing look over her shoulder. With her hair in gold twists and her sheet that seems bent rather than draped, the texture is metallic as much as celluloid, conjuring up the sleek gleam of cars in the age of speed.
Muscle rather than metal is the theme of the 1925 portrait of Marika, the Greek-born Duchesse de la Salle de Rochemaure, which carries the same estimate. Tall, well-rounded and boasting a beauty spot above her lip, the sitter has all of de Lempicka’s trademark characteristics, once described as “lighting by Caravaggio, tubism by Fernand Léger and lipstick by Chanel”. The picture radiates bisexual power. The Duchesse appears at first to be wearing black riding jodhpurs tucked into her boots, but when you look more closely it could just as easily be a black skirt pulled up almost to the crotch to reveal a powerful inner thigh.

Est.. £200,000 - £300,000
($302,600 -$453,900)

 

Est.. £60,000 - £80,000
($90,780 -$121,040)

 

Christie's 2014

Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980)
Portrait d'Evelyne P.
Pr.£146,500($238,795)

Tamara De Lempicka (1898-1980)
Un port sous la lune
Pr.$665,000

Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980)
L'heure bleue III
Pr.£338,500($551,755)

Christie's 2013

Tamara De Lempicka (1898-1980)

Nature morte

Pr.$81,250

 

Pr.$7,500

 

Pr.$32,500

 

Pr.$37,500

Tamara De Lempicka (1898-1980)

La Dormeuse III

Pr.$266,500

 

• 
  Tamara De Lempicka (1898-1980)
  Portrait de le Duchesse de Valmy
  Pr.$1,370,500
  
  
  

  
  
  Tamara De Lempicka (1898-1980)
  Portrait du Marquis Sommi
  Pr.$4,338,500
  
  

  
  

  
  Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980)
  La chemise rose I
  Pr.$3,218,500

  
  
  
   
  Christie's 2007
  
  

  
  

  
  Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980)
  Le turban vert
  Pr.$2,169,000

   
  

  
  Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980)
  Le paysan
  Pr.£141,600($280,793)

  
  

  
  
  Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980)
  Femme au turban blanc II
  Pr.$115,000

  • 
    Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980)
    Cruche et citrons sur une chaise
    Pr.$241,000
     
    

    • 
      Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980)
      Nature morte à la bouteille de lait
      Pr.$313,000