- 330
Tamara de Lempicka
Description
- Tamara de Lempicka
- Suzanne au bain
- Signed DE LEMPICKA (lower right)
- Oil on canvas
- 35 3/8 by 23 5/8 in.
- 90 by 60 cm
Provenance
Exhibited
New York, Julien Levy Gallery, Tamara de Lempicka, 1941, no. 3
Milwaukee Art Center, Tamara de Lempicka, 1942, no. 3
Rome, Académie de France (Villa Medici), Tamara de Lempicka, tra eleganza e trasgressione, 1994, no. 54, illustrated p. 91
Hiroshima, Museum of Fine Arts, Tamara de Lempicka, 1997, no. 5, illustrated p. 99
Literature
Giancarlo Marmori, Tamara de Lempicka, Idea Editions, Milan, 1978, p. 7
G. Bazin and H. Itsuki, Tamara de Lempicka, Tokyo, 1980, no. 86, illustrated pp. 147, 239
Wolfgang Joop, Tamara de Lempicka, Träume von Mythen und Moden, Offenburg, 1987, p. 21
Alain Blondel, Lempicka Catalogue Raisonné 1921-1979, Lausanne, 1999, no. B.207, illustrated p. 299
Catalogue Note
Suzanne au bain, dating circa 1938, can be seen as one of the most important paintings of the oeuvre produced by Tamara de Lempicka during the second half of the 1930s. Alain Blondel wrote about this picture, ‘in 1938 she began producing abundantly, and was, moreover, spurred on by an upcoming show in New York. She intended this work as one of the highlights of her show [Tamara de Lempicka, Paintings and Portraits] at the Paul Reinhardt Gallery, scheduled for the beginning of May 1939.’ (Alain Blondel, Tamara de Lempicka, Catalogue raisonné 1921-1979, Lausanne, 1999, p. 298)
In 1933 Lempicka married Baron Kuffner de Dioszegh who inherited a magnificent collection of Flemish and Italian Renaissance paintings. Having been surrounded by these works might have been the reason why the artist turned in the present work to the subject matter of ‘Susanne bathing’ numerously painted by Old Mater painters such as Tintoretto (Fig. 1) and Rembrandt. It was one of the most popular subject matters of the 16th century and is based on the biblical story of Susanne and the Elders.
Tamara de Lempicka deliberately did not include the watching elders in the present work in order to allow her to focus on the female bathing nude. The silk-like skin and the full red lips of Susanne apply an erotic charge to this painting that appears to overcome the coolness usually characteristic for Lempicka’s work of those years. The figure is executed in the painter’s most famous signature style which can be seen as a result of the art deco movement as well the aesthetic of the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity). The delicacy with which Lempicka depicted the hands of the model and the precision with which she captured details, such as, the wrinkled cloth in the lower right corner of the picture are proof to her mastery of the medium. Her works are unique in style and belong to the icons of an entire era. Suzanne au bain is undoubtedly an outstanding example of the artist’s work in the 1930s.
Fig. 1 Jacopo Tintoretto (1518-1594), Susanna al bagno, oil on canvas, 57 5/8 by 76 1/4in., Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna