The portrait of Romana de la Salle by Tamara Lempicka reached US$14.1 million at an auction by New York auction house Sotheby’s. This is one of the largest sums ever paid for a painting by a Polish artist.

The auctioned painting (oil on canvas) was created in 1928 – at the time considered to be the best period in Lempicka’s artistic career. It depicts the daughter of the Duchesse de Salle, who was a friend of Lempicka. Prior to the auction, the work was estimated to be worth $10 million to $15 million. The current record price for a Lempicka painting is 16 million dollars and was reached at the 2020 auction.

Tamara Lempicka was born on 16 May 1898, probably in Moscow, although some sources report Warsaw as her place of birth. Perhaps the inaccuracies are the result of the artist herself, who allegedly forged her birth certificate by putting Warsaw in it.

“She always referred to herself as Polish, but as an artist she was cosmopolitan, global, all-European. She admitted her Polish values, but she chose Europe and the United States as her place of creation”, said Izabela Mościcka, an assistant in the Modern Art Collection at the National Museum in Warsaw.

In 1918 Lempicka left for Paris to study at the Academie Ranson, where she met Andre Lhote, a painter, critic, art theorist and teacher. From him, Lempicka learnt to combine modern themes with the form familiar from classical paintings. Her works were publicly exhibited in 1922, causing a stir among art enthusiasts who emphasised the artist’s individual style.

The style ensured her financial success. The aesthetics of her oeuvres suited the tastes of the bourgeoisie, as did the subject matter of her works, predominantly portraits, still lifes and nudes. In 1938, she moved to the United States, becoming one of Hollywood’s most popular portraitists. Among others, Jack Nicholson and Madonna have her paintings in their collections.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński