Portraits of Parisian high society in the 1920s and 1930s, by the artist who best embodied the entire atmosphere of the belle époque.
“One of the most attractive characteristics of the style is the halo of success, recklessness and abandon, desire and attraction, and at the same time of impenetrability expressed by the figures; the colors are exciting, sexy, romantic, reflecting an incredible fusion of the traditional and the modern.” This is how Maurizio Calvesi sums up the particular atmosphere of the works of Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980), the artist of Polish origin known above all for her portraits of Parisian high society in the 1920s and 1930s. The beautiful exhibition in Rome that offered the occasion for this publication contained 57 works, most of them portraits, spanning the period 1920-1954, the years that brought her international acclaim. This success gradually faded after the artist moved to the United States. The war and the postwar period interrupted the worldly scene in which Tamara had worked with such nonchalance, as seen in her paintings. And for Tamara it was the beginning of the decline.