Nature morte au lys et au drapé gris

Details

Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980)
Nature morte au lys et au drapé gris
signed 'T.LEMPICKA.' (upper right)
oil on canvas
25 1/2 x 21 1/2 in. (65 x 54.5 cm.)
Painted circa 1944

Provenance

The the artist's estate.
Barry Friedman Ltd., New York, 1990.
Private collection, United States, 1994.
Georgy & Tatiana Khatsenkov, Monaco, 2009.
Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, London, 2 June 2014, lot 30.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Literature

A. Blondel & U. Hirohi, Tamara de Lempicka, Tokyo, 1997, no. 54 (illustrated p. 103).
A. Blondel, Tamara de Lempicka, Catalogue raisonné 1921-1979, Lausanne, 1999, no. B.252, p. 331 (illustrated).
P. Bade, Tamara de Lempicka, New York, 2006, p. 116 (illustrated p.115).

Exhibited

Rome, Accademia di Francia, Tamara de Lempicka. Tra eleganza e transgressione, February – May 1994, no. 52, pp. 89 & 106 (illustrated); this exhibition later travelled to Montreal, Museum of Fine Arts, June – October 1994.
Tokyo, Isetan Museum of Art, Tamara de Lempicka, July 1997, no. 54, p. 103 (illustrated); this exhibition later travelled to Hiroshima, Museum of Art, August 1997. Nagoya, Matsuzakaya Museum of Art, September 1997. Osaka, Daimaru Museum of Art, October - November 1997.
Paris, Musée de Montparnasse, Les artistes russes hors frontière, July – October 2010, p. 153 (illustrated).
Rome, Complesso del Vittoriano, Tamara de Lempicka. La regina del moderno, March – July 2011, no. 64, pp. 286-287 (illustrated).

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Brought to you by

Michelle McMullan

MMcmullan@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2137

Lot Essay

The 1940s saw Lempicka start a series of still lives. Each of the elements building the composition of Nature morte au lys et au drapé gris contribute to the vastly personal meaning of this painting. As her favourite flower and symbol of purity - a feature stressed by the artist herself - the white lily became one of the most common elements in Lempicka’s works and in her home and her wardrobe. The omnipresent silvery-grey in the drapery was a favourite colour of the artist, which she requested to decorate her exhibitions and her home in Paris. Nature morte au lys et au drapé gris is notable for its stylistic similarity to classical painting. The precision, attention to detail and play of sharp light and shadow, show the lesson she took from the Italian old masters while travelling through southern Europe in her adolescence.

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