Femme de profil vêtue d'un châle

In 1918, Lempicka and her family were forced to flee Russia, losing all their possessions and having to start anew. As Alain Blondel noted, “When they at last landed at a cousin’s place in Paris, Lempicka was twenty, beautiful, and full of energy, and her arrival coincided with the victory celebrations in Paris. Refusing to let her new status get her down, she returned to the art studies she had to give up in St. Petersburg” (A. Blondel, op. cit. , 1999, p. 22).
Femme de profil vêtue d’un châle was painted just a few years after the artist’s arrival in Paris, in 1922, when she began participating in various Parisian salons, including the Salon d’Automne and the Salon des Tuileries. While the present portrait pre-dates the artist’s mature style, strong influences of Purism, Neo-Classicism and Italian Renaissance, which would accompany her throughout her career, are clearly present. The figure is painted with minimal detail, outlined by strong shadows; her defined profile highlighted by the contrasting stripe of dark green in the background, her purple shawl modestly draped on her shoulders. Breaking the clearly defined coloration of the portrait is a small cluster of red, green, ochre and pink strokes, perhaps a glimpse of the scarf’s vivid coloration, hinting to Lempicka’s origins.
The work was acquired in 1925 by Blanche Cheyrou, one of Lempicka’s earliest collectors, who owned many of her early works.