1927
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Miro O'Keeffe Lempicka Mondrian Soutine Women artists US painting < 1940 Degas French sculpture Sculpture by painters Children Music and dance Cars 1920s
See also : Miro O'Keeffe Lempicka Mondrian Soutine Women artists US painting < 1940 Degas French sculpture Sculpture by painters Children Music and dance Cars 1920s
1927 Petite Danseuse de 14 ans by Degas (posthumous)
2022 SOLD for $ 42M by Christie's
An original artist with an uneasy temper, Edgar Degas was one of the most innovative graphic artists of the nineteenth century. He knew that he was close to the Impressionists and appreciated their rejection of classicism. His own creative process was very complex, as shown in the example below.
In 1879, Marie draws the attention of the artist. Aged 14, this "petit rat d'Opéra" is an ungrateful teenager, far from physiological maturity, with awkward gestures, but already attracted to her future career as a dancer (which ended before it was to start when she was fired from the dance school for repeated absences).
Degas was a painter, draftsman, sculptor, photographer, printer, but his great art was oil and pastel. He used drawing and sculpture like sketches.
On his first sculpture of Marie, 74 cm high, the girl is naked. This makes sense since the artist wants to study the movements of her body. This is not enough for him. He realized another larger statue in painted wax, a little over 1 m, in the same position, with the unconventional idea to equip it with a dancing dress in cloth and real hair. By its realism that does not reject some ugliness, this portrait of an adolescent girl is indeed a key work of modern sculpture.
As in his many pastels of ballerinas, Degas captures a moment of life which is neither from the performance nor relaxed, which may be a reverie or an exhaustion.
After much hesitation, he shows his Petite danseuse de quatorze ans at the Impressionist exhibition of 1881. After this unique event and until his death in 1917, no sculpture of the master will be exhibited.
Degas had considered that his waxes were too fragile for preparing bronze casts. In 1918 his heirs contracted Adrien Hébrard to produce limited bronze editions of all seventy-four wax sculptures found during the posthumous inventory.
Hébrard worked often on request from collectors. The first complete set of bronzes was finished in 1921. This activity made the founder busy up to 1938 including a total 29 casts of the Petite Danseuse.
Petite danseuse de quatorze ans was edited by Hébrard in bronze with muslin skirt and satin hair ribbon.
A bronze 103 cm high not including the wooden base was sold for $ 42M from a lower estimate of $ 20M for sale by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 2C.
This copy with brown patina was cast in 1927 by Hébrard in commission from a US collector. It is fitted with the usual muslin skirt and satin hair ribbon of that model.
A copy with a provenance history beginning in the 1930s was sold for £ 13.3M by Sotheby's on February 3, 2009, lot 8.
Another example with no reference on the possible date was sold by Sotheby's for £ 15.8M on June 24, 2015, lot 14. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 13, 2022
#AuctionUpdate From the Anne H. Bass Collection, Edgar Degas’s ‘Petite danseuse de quatorze ans’ broke the auction record of the artist tonight; price realized $41.6 million
In 1879, Marie draws the attention of the artist. Aged 14, this "petit rat d'Opéra" is an ungrateful teenager, far from physiological maturity, with awkward gestures, but already attracted to her future career as a dancer (which ended before it was to start when she was fired from the dance school for repeated absences).
Degas was a painter, draftsman, sculptor, photographer, printer, but his great art was oil and pastel. He used drawing and sculpture like sketches.
On his first sculpture of Marie, 74 cm high, the girl is naked. This makes sense since the artist wants to study the movements of her body. This is not enough for him. He realized another larger statue in painted wax, a little over 1 m, in the same position, with the unconventional idea to equip it with a dancing dress in cloth and real hair. By its realism that does not reject some ugliness, this portrait of an adolescent girl is indeed a key work of modern sculpture.
As in his many pastels of ballerinas, Degas captures a moment of life which is neither from the performance nor relaxed, which may be a reverie or an exhaustion.
After much hesitation, he shows his Petite danseuse de quatorze ans at the Impressionist exhibition of 1881. After this unique event and until his death in 1917, no sculpture of the master will be exhibited.
Degas had considered that his waxes were too fragile for preparing bronze casts. In 1918 his heirs contracted Adrien Hébrard to produce limited bronze editions of all seventy-four wax sculptures found during the posthumous inventory.
Hébrard worked often on request from collectors. The first complete set of bronzes was finished in 1921. This activity made the founder busy up to 1938 including a total 29 casts of the Petite Danseuse.
Petite danseuse de quatorze ans was edited by Hébrard in bronze with muslin skirt and satin hair ribbon.
A bronze 103 cm high not including the wooden base was sold for $ 42M from a lower estimate of $ 20M for sale by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 2C.
This copy with brown patina was cast in 1927 by Hébrard in commission from a US collector. It is fitted with the usual muslin skirt and satin hair ribbon of that model.
A copy with a provenance history beginning in the 1930s was sold for £ 13.3M by Sotheby's on February 3, 2009, lot 8.
Another example with no reference on the possible date was sold by Sotheby's for £ 15.8M on June 24, 2015, lot 14. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 13, 2022
#AuctionUpdate From the Anne H. Bass Collection, Edgar Degas’s ‘Petite danseuse de quatorze ans’ broke the auction record of the artist tonight; price realized $41.6 million
- Edgar Degas's "Petite danseuse de quatorze ans," a bronze sculpture from 1878-1881 depicting a young ballerina in real clothing, shattered the artist's auction record at $41.6 million during Christie's May 2022 sale from the Anne H. Bass Collection, exceeding its $20-30 million estimate.
- The original wax version, exhibited in 1881, sparked controversy for its unflinching realism, portraying 14-year-old Marie van Goethem with a tulle skirt, linen bodice, and hair ribbon, challenging 19th-century ideals of beauty.
- This cast, one of 28 bronzes produced posthumously from Degas's waxes, highlights the sculpture's enduring appeal, with prior sales like a 2015 Sotheby's example at $30.8 million underscoring rising demand for Impressionist works.
#AuctionUpdate From the Anne H. Bass Collection, Edgar Degas’s ‘Petite danseuse de quatorze ans’ broke the auction record of the artist tonight; price realized $41.6 million pic.twitter.com/Dn4JLCbWTB
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) May 12, 2022
1927 MIRO
1
Etoile Bleue
2012 SOLD for £ 23.5M by Sotheby's
Miro was the most abstract of the surrealists and the most surreal of the abstract. His use of geometric shapes is as hermetic as the artistic grammar of Kandinsky. The title of the work invites the viewer to a certain vision that is never the only possible interpretation.
Painted in 1927, Peinture (étoile bleue), is typical and can rightly be considered as an outstanding work of the artist. It was sold for € 11.6M by Aguttes on December 21, 2007 and for £ 23.5M by Sotheby's on June 19, 2012, lot 10.
Never a visible star was blue, but the universe of Miro is completely dreamlike. The artwork, an oil on canvas 115 x 89 cm, is actually azure dark blue, anticipating over thirty years Klein's IKB.
The vertical format invites to gravity, but the opposite occurs. The forms that sail in this space are completely free and far between, like galaxies in the sky.
Grok thought :
Quote
Temetrius @Twelveskii Dec 29, 2023
Ili Etoile Bleue,Joan Miro, prodato za 37 miliona dolara
Painted in 1927, Peinture (étoile bleue), is typical and can rightly be considered as an outstanding work of the artist. It was sold for € 11.6M by Aguttes on December 21, 2007 and for £ 23.5M by Sotheby's on June 19, 2012, lot 10.
Never a visible star was blue, but the universe of Miro is completely dreamlike. The artwork, an oil on canvas 115 x 89 cm, is actually azure dark blue, anticipating over thirty years Klein's IKB.
The vertical format invites to gravity, but the opposite occurs. The forms that sail in this space are completely free and far between, like galaxies in the sky.
Grok thought :
Quote
Temetrius @Twelveskii Dec 29, 2023
Ili Etoile Bleue,Joan Miro, prodato za 37 miliona dolara
- This reply by @Twelveskii jokingly equates a botched ink scribble on a couch to Joan Miró's 1927 surrealist masterpiece "L'Etoile Bleue," which sold for $37.2 million at Sotheby's in 2012, turning domestic mishap into high-art satire.
- The thread originates from a user's frustrated post about permanent pen marks on beige upholstery, with abstract lines evoking modernist doodles that resist cleaning.
- Miró's painting features ethereal blue motifs like a bird and ladder on a vast blue canvas, a surreal contrast to the post's chaotic stains, underscoring how chance marks parallel avant-garde abstraction in art history.
2
Femme au Chapeau Rouge
2020 SOLD for £ 22.3M by Sotheby's
When Breton is preparing the Manifeste du Surréalisme in 1924, this movement is mainly literary. It is Miro who will make the link between art and poetry, with his cycle of dream paintings. The exuberant titles give way to a minimalist description : "Peinture", sometimes followed by a subtitle.
This phase culminates in 1927 with the blue period. The background is an opaque sky blue, azul in Spanish. This too saturated but very bright color had traditionally discouraged artists but could evoke a spirituality. It will inspire Klein's transcendental IKB.
The artist's graphic technique is unprecedented. The image approaches a very schematic reality, by the spots of vivid colors that dot its surface. The dream is a very narrow black line which complements the previous forms and often contradicts them. He will reuse this opposition with high virtuosity in his war series of the Constellations.
This graphic duality is present in Peinture (Etoile bleue), which derives its subtitle from a cobalt blue star. The figuration is a tiny tightrope walker in a spinning movement. This oil on canvas 115 x 89 cm was sold for £ 23.5M by Sotheby's on June 19, 2012.
On July 28, 2020, Sotheby's sold for £ 22.3M Peinture (Femme au chapeau rouge), oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm, lot 17. This work attests to the influence of Miro on Calder who managed to acquire it in 1966. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Invited by the subtitle, the observer quickly finds the spot that represents the hat. The image of the woman is gradually created from top to bottom, with the golden neckline, the black corset and the large white apron that flies in the wind. The black line could have underlined the torso if it did not protrude above the hat. In the lower part of the image, it forms a sort of crinoline on the left of the apron.
This phase culminates in 1927 with the blue period. The background is an opaque sky blue, azul in Spanish. This too saturated but very bright color had traditionally discouraged artists but could evoke a spirituality. It will inspire Klein's transcendental IKB.
The artist's graphic technique is unprecedented. The image approaches a very schematic reality, by the spots of vivid colors that dot its surface. The dream is a very narrow black line which complements the previous forms and often contradicts them. He will reuse this opposition with high virtuosity in his war series of the Constellations.
This graphic duality is present in Peinture (Etoile bleue), which derives its subtitle from a cobalt blue star. The figuration is a tiny tightrope walker in a spinning movement. This oil on canvas 115 x 89 cm was sold for £ 23.5M by Sotheby's on June 19, 2012.
On July 28, 2020, Sotheby's sold for £ 22.3M Peinture (Femme au chapeau rouge), oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm, lot 17. This work attests to the influence of Miro on Calder who managed to acquire it in 1966. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Invited by the subtitle, the observer quickly finds the spot that represents the hat. The image of the woman is gradually created from top to bottom, with the golden neckline, the black corset and the large white apron that flies in the wind. The black line could have underlined the torso if it did not protrude above the hat. In the lower part of the image, it forms a sort of crinoline on the left of the apron.
1927 O'KEEFFE
Intro
Born on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, Georgia O'Keeffe observes nature. When she becomes a pioneer of abstract art around 1915, she explains that she expresses her sensations or her imagination, without saying too much that the humble wild flowers contribute significantly to her inspiration.
From 1923 the calla lily becomes her favorite theme, and before the end of the decade her friends take fun in assimilating the woman and the plant. Both are wild, vigorous, sensual, authoritarian, independent.
In New York Georgia is surrounded by the group of photographers led by Stieglitz. It is interesting to note that at the same time in California, Imogen Cunningham enters the heart of flowers with her camera after selecting magnolia and calla.
Georgia revolves around her flower to get perspectives of the widest variety. The friends find sex symbols that Georgia will not seek to deny or confirm.
From 1923 the calla lily becomes her favorite theme, and before the end of the decade her friends take fun in assimilating the woman and the plant. Both are wild, vigorous, sensual, authoritarian, independent.
In New York Georgia is surrounded by the group of photographers led by Stieglitz. It is interesting to note that at the same time in California, Imogen Cunningham enters the heart of flowers with her camera after selecting magnolia and calla.
Georgia revolves around her flower to get perspectives of the widest variety. The friends find sex symbols that Georgia will not seek to deny or confirm.
1
White Rose with Larkspur
2022 SOLD for $ 26.7M by Christie's
Alfred Stieglitz was one of the first to understand the strong link between photography and art, and his gallery in New York was a meeting point for painters and photographers. After being one of the best authors of photos of the city, he became passionately interested in one subject, Georgia O'Keeffe, and married her in 1924.
It was not enough for Georgia to be Stieglitz's wife and model. She finds a small paradise in the grasslands around Lake George in upstate New York. Nature knows how to create perfect shapes much better than an artist can do. She watches the flowering of the weeds.
Georgia was an artist, and such a creative environment transformed her approach. She showed in her paintings some details of nature and also landscape shapes coming close to abstraction, like Weston, like Cunningham. Like them, she wanted to share what she saw.
In 1924, she began a series of oils on canvas on the theme of petunia flowers. The painting allowed a larger, and therefore more spectacular, size than the usual photos of the time.
An oil on canvas 76 x 91 cm painted in 1926 features two flowers of petunia. One is purple and almost black, and the other is pinkish and almost white. This opposition irresistibly evokes the positive negative duality of photography. It was sold for $ 4.1M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2010, lot 32. In the same year Man Ray, who knew Stieglitz, realized his famous photo "Noire et Blanche" (Black and White), showing a white woman's head next to a black African mask.
Georgia expresses the beauty of white flowers in a variety of viewpoints that reveal their sublime geometries in the process of their outbreak.
White rose with larkspur No. 1, oil on canvas 91 x 73 cm painted in 1927, was sold for $ 26.7M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 9. It had been kept by the artist until she presented it to a friend in 1946.
The pale flesh colored rose is displayed in a surrounding of blue and purple larkspur blooms and green leaves that fills the whole surface. The No. 2 of the same title hang until 1980 in Georgia's bedroom at Abiquiu. In this 1927 series the artist comes back once again to the relation between flower and abstraction, or in some tentative interpretation between flower and female human sex.
In a very different theme, another study of a pale tone, 61 x 91 cm painted in 1930, was sold for $ 3.4M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2010. Closer to the geometric abstraction, it features the mollusk that lives inside a clam shell.
It was not enough for Georgia to be Stieglitz's wife and model. She finds a small paradise in the grasslands around Lake George in upstate New York. Nature knows how to create perfect shapes much better than an artist can do. She watches the flowering of the weeds.
Georgia was an artist, and such a creative environment transformed her approach. She showed in her paintings some details of nature and also landscape shapes coming close to abstraction, like Weston, like Cunningham. Like them, she wanted to share what she saw.
In 1924, she began a series of oils on canvas on the theme of petunia flowers. The painting allowed a larger, and therefore more spectacular, size than the usual photos of the time.
An oil on canvas 76 x 91 cm painted in 1926 features two flowers of petunia. One is purple and almost black, and the other is pinkish and almost white. This opposition irresistibly evokes the positive negative duality of photography. It was sold for $ 4.1M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2010, lot 32. In the same year Man Ray, who knew Stieglitz, realized his famous photo "Noire et Blanche" (Black and White), showing a white woman's head next to a black African mask.
Georgia expresses the beauty of white flowers in a variety of viewpoints that reveal their sublime geometries in the process of their outbreak.
White rose with larkspur No. 1, oil on canvas 91 x 73 cm painted in 1927, was sold for $ 26.7M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 9. It had been kept by the artist until she presented it to a friend in 1946.
The pale flesh colored rose is displayed in a surrounding of blue and purple larkspur blooms and green leaves that fills the whole surface. The No. 2 of the same title hang until 1980 in Georgia's bedroom at Abiquiu. In this 1927 series the artist comes back once again to the relation between flower and abstraction, or in some tentative interpretation between flower and female human sex.
In a very different theme, another study of a pale tone, 61 x 91 cm painted in 1930, was sold for $ 3.4M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2010. Closer to the geometric abstraction, it features the mollusk that lives inside a clam shell.
2
Autumn Leaf
2022 SOLD for $ 15.3M by Christie's
Executed in 1926, Autumn leaf with white flower, oil on canvas 51 x 23 cm painted in 1926, was sold for $ 4.95M by Christie's on May 18, 2021, lot 7.
Autumn Leaves N° 2, oil on canvas 81 x 53 cm painted in 1927, goes closer to abstraction. In that fully filled and nearly symmetrical flattened composition, the decorative flower of the example above has been removed and the green leaf is surrounded by the vibrant colors of the fall. Small gaps at the lower edge of the oak leaf may be interpreted as a memento mori.
It was sold for $ 4.3M by Sotheby's on November 29, 2012, lot 10 and for $ 15.3M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 45.
Autumn Leaves N° 2, oil on canvas 81 x 53 cm painted in 1927, goes closer to abstraction. In that fully filled and nearly symmetrical flattened composition, the decorative flower of the example above has been removed and the green leaf is surrounded by the vibrant colors of the fall. Small gaps at the lower edge of the oak leaf may be interpreted as a memento mori.
It was sold for $ 4.3M by Sotheby's on November 29, 2012, lot 10 and for $ 15.3M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 45.
1927 MONDRIAN
1
Composition with Yellow, Red and Blue
2021 SOLD for $ 26M by Christie"s
Mondrian's Composition with Yellow, Red and Blue, No. II from the 1927 nomenclature, displays the three basic Mondrian colors, each one in a single flat area. The single vertical black line is not exactly centered, so imperceptibly meeting the basic non-symmetry rule of the artist. The blue at the bottom left is extremely narrow. The other areas are white.
That No. II, oil on canvas 50 x 35 cm, was sold for $ 26M by Christie's on May 13, 2021, lot 19 B.
In period it was indeed not the sort of work that the public considered as art. After a one-day solo exhibition of 18 paintings in Paris, Mondrian was shocked to retrieve his canvases including No. II being prepared for the laundry by the local staff. He was able to repaint them within one month.
The simplification achieved by Mondrian in that phase inspired Calder, Perriand and Saint Laurent.
That No. II, oil on canvas 50 x 35 cm, was sold for $ 26M by Christie's on May 13, 2021, lot 19 B.
In period it was indeed not the sort of work that the public considered as art. After a one-day solo exhibition of 18 paintings in Paris, Mondrian was shocked to retrieve his canvases including No. II being prepared for the laundry by the local staff. He was able to repaint them within one month.
The simplification achieved by Mondrian in that phase inspired Calder, Perriand and Saint Laurent.
Piet Mondrian's 'Composition: No II, With Yellow, Red and Blue' will highlight our 20th Century Evening Sale in NY.
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) April 9, 2021
Painted in 1927, the painting encapsulates the purity, elegance, and extreme rigor of the Dutch painter's unique aesthetic. pic.twitter.com/GmhZC3UFk4
2
Composition with Red, Blue and Grey
2014 SOLD for £ 15.2M by Sotheby's
In 1927 a come back by Mondrian to two or three of his basic colors is necessary. The surfaces are again placed within an outer rectangular light grey line, meaning that the border areas are designed for achieving the balance and not to offer an escape to the outside world.
Composition with Red, Blue and Grey excludes the yellow and the white. This blue has a single narrow area at the same place as the red in the 1926 example above. This oil on canvas 68 x 53 cm was sold for £ 15.2M by Sotheby's on June 23, 2014, lot 14. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Composition with Red, Blue and Grey excludes the yellow and the white. This blue has a single narrow area at the same place as the red in the 1926 example above. This oil on canvas 68 x 53 cm was sold for £ 15.2M by Sotheby's on June 23, 2014, lot 14. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
3
2013 SOLD for £ 9.3M by Sotheby's
White background responds better than gray to Mondrian's quest for purity. Painted in 1927, a small composition with three colors 38 x 35 cm was sold for £ 9.3M from a lower estimate of £ 4.5M by Sotheby's on June 19, 2013.
Mondrian is not a geometer and his progress is empirical. His quest to the sublime leads him to vary the position and size of the colored areas from one artwork to another.
Of same size, yellow and red are on the left of the same vertical. The violent and haunting red escapes by two sides, top and left. The lower line prevents the yellow to reach the bottom edge but allows the intrusion of the long blue stripe. Twenty years before Pollock, the impressions offered in Mondrian's art have already no limitations.
Mondrian is not a geometer and his progress is empirical. His quest to the sublime leads him to vary the position and size of the colored areas from one artwork to another.
Of same size, yellow and red are on the left of the same vertical. The violent and haunting red escapes by two sides, top and left. The lower line prevents the yellow to reach the bottom edge but allows the intrusion of the long blue stripe. Twenty years before Pollock, the impressions offered in Mondrian's art have already no limitations.
1927 Le Petit Pâtissier by Soutine
2013 SOLD for $ 18M by Christie's
The portrait of apprentice pastry cooks is a recurring theme for Soutine. These boys engaged in a job that they have not chosen are a mirror of the difficulties of his own life. These young people are already ugly and sad. Their uniform reveals their lower class profession for the service of the rich.
One of the first versions astonishes Paul Guillaume and Dr. Barnes, ensuring the lasting fame of the artist, a fame of which he so rarely profited because of his ever dissatisfied nature.
On May 8, 2013, Christie's sold for $ 18M the sixth and final portrait of pastry cooks, painted circa 1927. This oil on canvas, 76 x 70 cm, is extraordinary for its emotional intensity and technical quality.
The malaise of the boy is visible from his sickly eye, pouting mouth and clumsy hands clutching the hips.
The artwork is at the intersection of Modigliani's ideal compositions, Picasso's pauperism in the blue period and Monet's chromatic subtlety within the white, and of course the nervousness of the brushwork is proper to Soutine.
One of the first versions astonishes Paul Guillaume and Dr. Barnes, ensuring the lasting fame of the artist, a fame of which he so rarely profited because of his ever dissatisfied nature.
On May 8, 2013, Christie's sold for $ 18M the sixth and final portrait of pastry cooks, painted circa 1927. This oil on canvas, 76 x 70 cm, is extraordinary for its emotional intensity and technical quality.
The malaise of the boy is visible from his sickly eye, pouting mouth and clumsy hands clutching the hips.
The artwork is at the intersection of Modigliani's ideal compositions, Picasso's pauperism in the blue period and Monet's chromatic subtlety within the white, and of course the nervousness of the brushwork is proper to Soutine.
1927 La Tunique Rose by Lempicka
2019 SOLD for $ 13.4M by Sotheby's
Tamara de Lempicka appreciated that success is the result of personal initiative. She began her career as a portrait artist in Paris, including a worldly escapade in Milan in 1925, while making clear statements on her bisexual desires. Some freedom brought by Hollywood made this kind of attitude already possible.
Her husband's name is Tadeusz Lempicki. Some of Tamara's early paintings are signed T. de Lempitzki, probably to mark her manly tendencies. She looks for the most beautiful women and invites them to pose on her couch, naked or dressed.
Tamara meets Rafaëla at the Bois de Boulogne. She will tell later that she had seen how passers-by stared at the young woman. Rafaëla is pretty and chubby, with her hair styled in the fashion of Louise Brooks. Her portraits by Tamara are carnal, in the signature neat lines of the artist, revealing a love empathy between the two women.
Le Rêve, oil on canvas 81 x 59 cm painted in 1927, is also titled Rafaëla sur fond vert. The shirtless model sits with her arms crossed over her chest and her head resting on the back of the sofa. Like the best nudes of Modigliani, she waits peacefully for the artist's instructions. It was sold for $ 8.5M by Sotheby's on November 2, 2011.
La Tunique Rose is certainly the first portrait of Rafaëla by Tamara. Reclining on the same green sofa, Rafaëla wears a little dress no more covering than a night suit. The expression is nice, with a contrast between the shadow on the eyes and the light on the red mouth. This oil on canvas 73 x 116 cm was sold for $ 13.4M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Sotheby's on November 12, 2019, lot 43.
As narrated later by Kizette, Tamara de Lempicka took her new friend in the art museums of Florence, Rome and Venice, studying together the art of female nudes by Renaissance painters down to the details of perfecting a composition, applying a chiaroscuro, using an impasto, modelling a cheek.
La Belle Rafaëla, certainly the second opus in that series after La Tunique Rose, is in the follow of that experience. The dramatic light effect on the reclining sculptural nude is influenced by the Caravaggians, the twisting position of the body comes from a Renaissance Venus or from an odalisque by Ingres, the bold perspective with the legs forward may refer to Mantegna.
The expectation for a sapphic pleasure is a personal touch by Tamara in her Art Déco signature style. This theme was much daring for a female artist. Only three decades earlier, women were still prohibited in France to study live nude models.
This oil on canvas 64 x 91 cm painted in 1927 was sold for £ 7.5M by Sotheby's on June 24, 2025, lot 14. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
A sexually sensitive Nu adossé dated 1925 was signed T. de Lempitzki, the masculine version disguising by precaution Tamara's gender. This very early opus was exhibited in the same year in her solo exhibition 'Tamara de Lempitzka' in Milan and in the Parisian Salon d'Automne.
The mid length nude young woman with a chubby flesh is comfortably contorted in a green sofa, in a slight contrapposto. The head of the enticing beauty is bent to the left to pose the cheek on the shoulder and the crossed arms hide the breast. The gaze is sideways. At that time Tamara was inspired by selfies and by movie stars such as Bette Davis as evidenced by period photos.
Resurfacing after 86 years out of view, this oil on canvas 81 x 54 cm was sold for $ 5.5M by Sotheby's on May 2, 2012, lot 46. Please watch the video shared by the auction house before it was withdrawn on June 25, 2024, lot 22.
Selfies cannot please for long the bisexual artist. In 1927 she selects Rafaëla during a chance wandering. That brunette matches Tamara's quest of the ideal woman at the same time when the blonde Marie-Thérèse Walter matches Picasso's.
Le Rêve, painted in similar dimensions in 1927 and sub-titled Rafaëla sur fond vert, is a remake of the Nu adossé using now the face lines and the dark hair in the fashion of the movie star Louise Brooks.
The artist was 29 years old when she painted this work. She loved women, and was able to establish communication with her model. The young woman naked to the waist is comfortably nestled in a green sofa. The gaze is strong and straight. She looks confident like a nude by Modigliani, and her arms resting on the chest are a charming gesture, not a protection.
This oil on canvas 81 x 59 cm was sold for $ 8.5M by Sotheby's on November 2, 2011. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
With her skill for doing the portraits of her contemporaries, Tamara de Lempicka can however not be attached to any school of painting, and even better she probably inspired Picasso.
The 1920s have witnessed the dramatic expansion of the films. The image of the ideal woman interested, or perhaps obsessed, Lempicka. Her characters with sharp lines and with hairstyles typical of her time are the mirror views of the emerging Greta Garbo and Louise Brooks.
Her husband's name is Tadeusz Lempicki. Some of Tamara's early paintings are signed T. de Lempitzki, probably to mark her manly tendencies. She looks for the most beautiful women and invites them to pose on her couch, naked or dressed.
Tamara meets Rafaëla at the Bois de Boulogne. She will tell later that she had seen how passers-by stared at the young woman. Rafaëla is pretty and chubby, with her hair styled in the fashion of Louise Brooks. Her portraits by Tamara are carnal, in the signature neat lines of the artist, revealing a love empathy between the two women.
Le Rêve, oil on canvas 81 x 59 cm painted in 1927, is also titled Rafaëla sur fond vert. The shirtless model sits with her arms crossed over her chest and her head resting on the back of the sofa. Like the best nudes of Modigliani, she waits peacefully for the artist's instructions. It was sold for $ 8.5M by Sotheby's on November 2, 2011.
La Tunique Rose is certainly the first portrait of Rafaëla by Tamara. Reclining on the same green sofa, Rafaëla wears a little dress no more covering than a night suit. The expression is nice, with a contrast between the shadow on the eyes and the light on the red mouth. This oil on canvas 73 x 116 cm was sold for $ 13.4M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Sotheby's on November 12, 2019, lot 43.
As narrated later by Kizette, Tamara de Lempicka took her new friend in the art museums of Florence, Rome and Venice, studying together the art of female nudes by Renaissance painters down to the details of perfecting a composition, applying a chiaroscuro, using an impasto, modelling a cheek.
La Belle Rafaëla, certainly the second opus in that series after La Tunique Rose, is in the follow of that experience. The dramatic light effect on the reclining sculptural nude is influenced by the Caravaggians, the twisting position of the body comes from a Renaissance Venus or from an odalisque by Ingres, the bold perspective with the legs forward may refer to Mantegna.
The expectation for a sapphic pleasure is a personal touch by Tamara in her Art Déco signature style. This theme was much daring for a female artist. Only three decades earlier, women were still prohibited in France to study live nude models.
This oil on canvas 64 x 91 cm painted in 1927 was sold for £ 7.5M by Sotheby's on June 24, 2025, lot 14. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
A sexually sensitive Nu adossé dated 1925 was signed T. de Lempitzki, the masculine version disguising by precaution Tamara's gender. This very early opus was exhibited in the same year in her solo exhibition 'Tamara de Lempitzka' in Milan and in the Parisian Salon d'Automne.
The mid length nude young woman with a chubby flesh is comfortably contorted in a green sofa, in a slight contrapposto. The head of the enticing beauty is bent to the left to pose the cheek on the shoulder and the crossed arms hide the breast. The gaze is sideways. At that time Tamara was inspired by selfies and by movie stars such as Bette Davis as evidenced by period photos.
Resurfacing after 86 years out of view, this oil on canvas 81 x 54 cm was sold for $ 5.5M by Sotheby's on May 2, 2012, lot 46. Please watch the video shared by the auction house before it was withdrawn on June 25, 2024, lot 22.
Selfies cannot please for long the bisexual artist. In 1927 she selects Rafaëla during a chance wandering. That brunette matches Tamara's quest of the ideal woman at the same time when the blonde Marie-Thérèse Walter matches Picasso's.
Le Rêve, painted in similar dimensions in 1927 and sub-titled Rafaëla sur fond vert, is a remake of the Nu adossé using now the face lines and the dark hair in the fashion of the movie star Louise Brooks.
The artist was 29 years old when she painted this work. She loved women, and was able to establish communication with her model. The young woman naked to the waist is comfortably nestled in a green sofa. The gaze is strong and straight. She looks confident like a nude by Modigliani, and her arms resting on the chest are a charming gesture, not a protection.
This oil on canvas 81 x 59 cm was sold for $ 8.5M by Sotheby's on November 2, 2011. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
With her skill for doing the portraits of her contemporaries, Tamara de Lempicka can however not be attached to any school of painting, and even better she probably inspired Picasso.
The 1920s have witnessed the dramatic expansion of the films. The image of the ideal woman interested, or perhaps obsessed, Lempicka. Her characters with sharp lines and with hairstyles typical of her time are the mirror views of the emerging Greta Garbo and Louise Brooks.
