Some of the most controversial yet significant images from the medieval era were the portraiture of nude subjects. These pictures, though sometimes religious and captured through canvases to preserve that very value, upset the overly strict religious personalities. The revolt was so clear that images such as The Last Judgment were altered through clothing the subjects, and the promotion of such works ceased entirely. While the region recovered from that notion, it was still centuries ahead that women painters were given the position to observe and paint nude subjects. When the revolt for the latter came, it struck so monumentally that the thought of nude being a “male painter’s domain” grieved, making women painters such as Tamara de Lempicka a groundbreaking figure who presented women with such intimacy that it was no lesser than real life. One of these works from her catalog, La Belle Rafaëla, is coming to auction at Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary Evening, scheduled for June 24 in London.
Estimated for £6 million to £9 million ($8.14 million to $12.21 million), the painting was last offered on auction in 1985 and purchased by the present owner in 1997 in a private sale. The estimates, though prestige, do not pass the two record-breaking sales of Lempicka – Portrait de Marjorie Ferry (sold for $21.1 million by Christie’s in 2020) and La Tunique Rose (sold for $13.3 million by Sotheby’s in 2019).
Speaking about the work, La Belle Rafaëla is a representation of the artist’s mastery in painting nudity, such sensual and elegant that critics commended her work saying, “one of the most remarkable nudes of the century.”
Exhibiting Lempicka’s understanding of Western history, this work is not limited to her professional expertise but also her personal life as it subjects Rafaëla, her most famous muse and her lover. Years later, she recalled her bold proposition to Rafaëla when she first met her at Bois de Boulogne,
“She is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen – huge black eyes, beautiful, sensuous mouth, beautiful body. I stop her and say to her ‘Mademoiselle, I’m a painter and I would like you to pose for me. Would you do this?’ She says‘Yes. Why not?’”
Other paintings that subject this encapturing woman are La Tunique Rose, La Belle Rafaëla En Vert, Le Rêve (Rafaëla Sur Fond Vert), and Nu Couché au Livre. When looking at the painting in question, La Belle Rafaëla, showcases the perfect interplay of light and shadow, reviving the chiaroscuro that Artemisia used in her works for a dramatic effect.Artemisia, known for her feminist portraiture, presented the female perspective of tropes that were so long only painted by male painters and this might have been something that Lempicka connected with, knowing she and her female contemporaries were still directing their role in the art of painting. As Furio Rinaldi writes, Lempicka’s sapphic nudes “do not portray idealized mythological figures but contemporary women, captured in moments of realistic intimate complicity.”
The painting goes beyond just lighting and adapts to the modeling of female subjects in historical works. The twisting and voluptuous body of Rafaëla is as if she found pleasure in architecturing her subjects like that, showing the influence of Quattrocento masters or linea serpentina on her. Whether dressed or undressed, the female subjects of Lempicka’s canvases always displayed power and sturdiness, at the same time having the attributes of feminity. Furio Rinaldi said,
“By prominently featuring the woman’s bodies as dominant and self-absorbed in their erotic pleasure, [Lempicka] fully displayed their sexual power and unabashed confidence.”
Further influences that might have shaped her works might have been from Neoclassical painters and her avant-garde contemporaries.
The significance of this painting and its value in the art market is for its display of the artist’s signature style, showcasing razor-sharp draughtsmanship, imperceptible brushwork, and cinematic lighting – nearly matching Hollywood Silver Screen depiction of the time. The artist later recalled,
“I was the first woman who did clear painting—and that was the success of my painting. […] Among a hundred paintings, you could recognize mine. And the galleries began to put me in the best rooms, always in the center, because my painting attracted people. It was neat, it was finished.”
It is no longer before we witness the collectors’ demand for Lempicka’s work; knowing the canvas displays the most powerful nude images of the 20th century, the auction becomes even more crucial to also understand the direction the art market is moving towards. Whether or not the market responds the same way it did with design or not? Will the designers meet and are willing to spend for crucial art figures such as Lempicka, among others, as the sale brings works of Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, and Renoir to the stage?
Featured Image: La Belle Rafaëla by Tamara Lempicka; Sotheby’s.
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