(Warsaw 1898 - 1980 Cuernavaca)

Cruche et citrons sur une chaise. Circa 1942.

Oil on canvas.

51 x 40.5 cm.

Provenance:
- Estate of the artist.
- Christine Tamara Foxhall, Houston, received by descent from the above.
- Sotheby's, New York, auction 10 April 1987, lot 95.
- Sotheby's, New York, auction 26 February 1993, lot 92.
- Collection Pinhas, Los Angeles.
- Christie's, New York, auction 7 November 2007, lot 500.
- Private property Switzerland, aquired at the above auction.

Literature: Blondel, Alain: Tamara de Lempicka, Catalogue raisonné 1921-1979, Lausanne 1999, p. 322, no. B.239 (with ill.).

The two paintings offered here by the Polish Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka are beautiful examples of the still lifes so important to her oeuvre. These are characterised by their compositional simplicity and the very typical Art Deco colours.

In March 1939 Lempicka arrived in the USA with her second husband Baron Knuffer. In 1941 the expansion of the war hindered her exhibition activities. She then withdrew to her country house in Connecticut, where she devoted her time to a series of still lifes of everyday objects, vegetables, fruits and bottles, enabling her to reach a state of peace far removed from the upheavals of the times. She paid close attention to the solidity of her compositions and, with skilfully staged contours, constructed rounded forms that nevertheless retain their depth. Fully committed to the classical ideal of the genre, she usually decorated her still lifes with draped cloth. Influences of the trompe l'œil tradition can also be recognised in these works.