Tamara de Lempicka: The Woman In The Green Bugatti

 Tamara de Lempicka

Image courtesy of: http://www.decasandiego.com

(1898-1980)

“I live life in the margins of society, and the rules of normal society don't apply to those who live on the fringe.”

Auto-Portrait (Tamara In The Green Bugatti) ~ 1925

Image courtesy of: http://dawnhocknell.wordpress.com

 

Book-ended by the two Great Wars and attaining its zenith during the decades of the 1920s and 1930s, the symmetrical, rectilinear style known as "Arts Decoratifs" (which derived its name from a 1925 exhibition held in Paris: Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes), was one of the pinnacles of the 20th Century's decorative styles and spanned the decades from 1910 to 1939. It was a truly international style; a style that swept across the globe. Influenced by Cubism, Futurism, Modernism and the Bauhaus art movements of the time, the clean geometric motifs, with their bold colours and the streamlined accents of Art Deco - as the shortened version of "Arts Decoratifs" style was commonly known - represented the ideal forms of that era. As the predominant decorative style of those years, Art Deco naturally touched absolutely every aspect of design - from common household items and interiors to textiles and the fine arts - and surfaced in a variety of ways: in literature, it was exemplified by F. Scot Fitzgerald's "flapper" novels (particularly The Great Gatsby), possibly the Age's most prominent author; in popular music, it was typified by the energetic tempo of American Jazz (the first truly all-American export) - accompanied by the quick-stepped Charleston - a youthful, frenzied and optimistic new rhythm that followed the devastation of the First World War and preceded the Second (in Paris, Jazz was personified by the American sensation, Josephine Baker, who "shimmied" her way to international acclaim and fortune); architecturally speaking, Art Deco reached its height - quite literally - in the first upward-thrusting skyscrapers, the marvels of engineering of the Age, epitomised by the gleaming Chrysler and the Empire State buildings of New York City - that great megalopolis, a vanguard and a bastion of modernity.


Nor were the oceans exempt from the style's grasp: nations on both sides of the Atlantic, such as England, France and America, for example, vied with one another and competed to set afloat the most luxurious liners to ever be  launched on the waves (the French liners, the Île de France and the Normandie, foremost among them), with interiors of such beauty and craftsmanship that they rivalled those of the best, most exclusive hotels in the world. This dazzling era was also the age of great  French furniture designers and cabinet-makers: Francis Jourdain, Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Jean Dunand, Le Corbusier, and André Leon Arbus - all of whom created pieces that lifted furniture - made of the finest and most exotic woods available - to the realm of art; in the process, these furniture-makers defined a new concept of luxury and taste. Likewise, even Haute Bijoutiers - fronted notably by such illustrious firms as Cartier, Boucheron, Chopard and Van Cleef & Arpels - reflected the attributes of the Art Deco style, with angular designs that creatively and unexpectedly mixed disparate materials and brightly-coloured stones (boldly juxtaposing traditional ones next to new; precious with semi-precious) in innovative and wholly modern ways. Artists, too, took up the era's linear style: Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris and Marcel Duchamp all deconstructed and reduced established artistic traditions and processes to their bare, essential elements only to reconstruct them anew. The results may sometimes have been bizarre, but they were always energetic; the principles of art were redefined. Experimentation, dynamism, modernity, and novelty were the orders of the day.

Image courtesy of: http://www.theywillnever.com

Although her reputation never reached the stature of a Braque or a Picasso, Tamara de Lempicka's work was - and remains to this day - highly sought after. There is a seductive element to her portraits - at times dark and sinister; at other times, enticing and glamorous, even mystical - and her subjects exude a worldly, blasé urbanity with something approaching debauched decadence. Lempicka's artwork, with its paper-thin crispness and her clean, sinuous lines (articulated with  razor-sharp precision), has come to embody the Art Deco style in all its refined glory. It is precisely those unique elements of her work which still captivate art-lovers everywhere and distinguishes her work apart from any other of that period; her artwork (and the style of her work) is intimately identified with the exhilarating 1920s and 1930s - and has come to represent the quintessence of the high-living Jazz Age.

 

Image courtesy of: http://www.7emart.com

She was born Maria Gorska on May 16th, 1898, into a well-to-do family in Warsaw, Poland. Not much is known of her childhood aside from the fact that she had an older brother, named Stanczyk, as well as a younger sister, named Adrienne. Her parents, Boris and Lavina Gorska, were wealthy socialites. Boris Gorska was a lawyer and Lavina Gorska came from a moneyed family. The Gorskas provided their children with a life of luxury; it was a life that Maria would eventually come to believe to be her due.

Maria's first introduction to the world of Art came when she was twelve years old - her mother had her daughter's portrait painted by a famous painter. (Maria hated the finished painting for which she found it difficult to sit still and felt she could have accomplished a better result. To prove her point, Maria had her younger sister, Adrienne, sit while she painted her portrait. All that is known of the finished work is that Maria was pleased enough with the result to begin her life-long interest in art.) (Source: UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, findarticles.com, 2003) 

Image courtesy of: http://lnx.whipart.it

After her parents divorced in 1912, one of her relatives, an affluent grandmother, spoiled the young girl with trips abroad and beautiful clothes. She attended a school in Lausanne, Switzerland; however, at the age of thirteen, Maria decided that she was bored with school and frequently invented false illnesses for herself in order to stay home and avoid the boredom of the class-room. Instead of keeping her at home, her grandmother took her on a tour of Italy. The magnificence and rich history of Italian art and architecture intensified Maria's love of art. Upon her return home, Maria was confronted with the news that her mother, Lavina Gorska, had decided to remarry in spite of her daughter's protestations to the otherwise. Unhappy with her mother's decision and in an act of rebellion, the fourteen-year-old Maria spent her school vacations with her Aunt Stephanie in St. Petersburg, Russia - then at its height of sophistication but also at the dusk of its Tsarist splendour. Her Aunt Stephanie lived prosperously: her millionaire banker husband had their St. Petersburg home decorated by the famous French firm of Maison Jansen. The luxury and splendid lifestyle in which her Aunt Stephanie lived made quite the impression on the young girl, imprinting on her a standard by which she aspired to live in the future; it was a standard from which she never swerved. (Sources: delempicka.org, 2011; UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, findarticles.com, 2003)

Portrait Of A Man (Taduesz Lempicki) ~ 1928
Image courtesy of: http://thepaintedwoman.blogspot.com

The outbreak of World War I changed everything: relations between Russia and Germany turned hostile and both nations declared war on one another; the world, as Maria knew it, came to an abrupt end. Still, soon after Russia's declaration of war, Maria fell in love with an eligible bachelor, a handsome Polish lawyer by the name of Taduesz Lempicki (whose first name is sometimes also spelled Tadeusz), whom she  had met on her occasional trips home to Warsaw, where Maria went from time to time between her school in Switzerland and her travels to her aunt in St. Petersburg. It was during one of these trips home in 1914 that she met Taduesz Lempicki, who apparently had a reputation as a rake and for being a ladies' man. As a lawyer, Lempicki was modestly well-off, but he did not come from real wealth; that fact did not dissuade Maria from falling in love with him. After a two-year courtship, in 1916, the couple married in fashionable St. Petersburg, at the Chapel of the Knights of Malta. Maria was seventeen years-old at the time of her wedding and Lempicki, who had no real money of his own, was delighted to marry a beautiful girl from a pecunious background; Maria's millionaire uncle - Aunt Stephanie's banker husband - provided the dowry. (Source: delempicka.org, 2011; UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, findarticles.com, 2003)

 

Tamara painting her first husband, Taduesz Lempicki (Portrait Of A Man)

Image courtesy of: http://www.theywillnever.com

In December of 1918, while Russia was in the midst of its bloody Revolution, Taduesz Lempicki was arrested and imprisoned by the Cheka (the Bolshevik secret police) on suspicion of being a counter-revolutionary. In desperation, Maria, his wife,  managed to escape to Copenhagen where she supposedly and advantageously employed her striking beauty and charm on the necessary officials of the Swedish consul for the purpose of securing her husband's freedom. Her seductive overtures apparently worked: her husband was released from prison. The Lempickis eventually found their way to Paris in 1919, where they slightly altered their married name - adding  the nobiliary particle "de" before their surname and dropped the "i" from Lempicki in favour of an "a" to form the feminine Lempicka; Maria also changed her Christian name: she was now known as Tamara - and tried to resume their pre-revolutionary (glamorous) lifestyle. Unfortunately, their marriage had been somewhat tainted by the results of Tamara's enticing efforts with other men.

But life for refugees in Paris after the war was unlike anything the couple had expected or hoped for - with his reputation as a ladies' man intact and embittered by his experiences with the Bolsheviks, Taduesz sought distraction in the company of other women; all things considered, his womanizing ways could not have been easy for  his wife to endure. Nor were matters helped by the fact that Taduesz was now without position and unable to find employment or that the couple were compelled to live in a tiny room in an unfashionable, cheap hotel; it was a life far removed from the affluent one Tamara had known growing up in St. Petersburg or even in Warsaw. In these circumstances, Tamara found out she was pregnant. By the time she gave birth to her daughter, Marie-Christine de Lempicka (nicknamed "Kizette"), in 1919, money was so scarce that Tamara was obliged to sell whatever jewellery she had managed to escape Russia with in order to support the family. Determined to recapture the wealthy lifestyle she had grown accustomed to, she turned to art as a means of earning a living. Nonetheless, it was here, in Paris, where the de Lempickas found refuge and where Tamara's extraordinary life story really begins. (Sources: delempicka.org, 2011; UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, findarticles.com, 2003)

Image courtesy of: http://glccaccini.blogspot.com

Tamara de Lempicka's professional artistic career took its first, tentative steps in Paris where, resolving to continue the studies she had interrupted in St. Petersburg, she decided to take lessons at the Académie Ranson from her first instructor: Maurice Denis (1870-1943), a post-symbolist French Nabi painter and a methodical teacher. ('Nabi' comes from the Arabic word for 'prophet' and the Nabi art movement - 1890-1898 - was developed by Les Nabis, a group of Parisian post-Impressionist artists led by Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard. Strongly opposed to positivism and naturalism, it was a movement more closely connected to the Symbolist and the Art Nouveau movements and best identified by an artist's emphasis on graphic art and design; as a group, Les Nabis tended to favour hues of browns, beiges and blues.) Tamara's apprenticeship under Denis's exacting eye enabled her to create immaculately structured, iconographic paintings later on in her career. (Source: UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, findarticles.com, 2003)

Seated Woman - Cubist ~ ca. 1922 (Left)

Futurist Composition ~ ca. 1922 (Right)

Both images above are courtesy of: http://www.delempicka.org

Tamara's second instructor was at Académie de la Grande Chaumière, in Montparnasse: André Lhote (1885-1962). A mute French Cubist painter, decorator, critic, art-teacher, theoretician and sculptor, Lhote had the greatest affect on her artistic direction. As a Cubist artist, Lhote's influence on Tamara's work is most evident in her angular, clean-cut Art Deco style. (Cubism was developed in the early 1900s as a collaboration between Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The movement's hallmark is discernible by the way in which an artist was able to capture the essence of an object while simultaneously displaying it from multiple angles and perspectives to the viewer.) It was Lhote who taught de Lempicka the ways in which to modify Cubism by retaining “its commercially acceptable aspects but leaving forms of objects intact.”  De Lempicka deftly combined the styles and lessons garnered from both of her teachers and she soon developed her own; she also developed a reputation as one of the best portrait painters in Paris.

(Sources & quote: UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, findarticles.com, 2003; mystudios.com, undated)

 

Portrait of A Young Lady In A Blue Dress ~ 1922 (Left)
The Chinese Man ~ 1921 (Right)

Both images above are courtesy of: http://www.delempicka.org

Tamara's artistic lessons paid dividends. She had obviously been an attentive, dedicated student for her first attempts at painting bore fruit: it did not take long for her first works to come to the attention of a gallery owner. Collette Weill, the proprietor of Galerie Collette Weill, was the first to display Tamara's portraits in her gallery in 1923 which, executed with a bold and confident hand, had no problem attracting gallery viewers to her thoroughly modern sense of new portraiture style. Her work found an immediate niche in the art market as patrons, drawn to the sensuality of her artwork, began to quickly purchase her paintings, guaranteeing Tamara financial success and a sure route out of her doldrums. Thanks to the success of her work, Tamara was once again able to resume her lavish lifestyle. (As a means of self-reward, Tamara purchased a diamond bracelet for every two paintings sold; her collection - a clear, unambiguous indicator of her financial success [and rise] in the art world - soon became apparent as her arms were loaded from wrist to shoulder with gems.) With increasing success, Tamara was able to travel more and to engage the best hotel suites; she also began to find herself moving among the cultural elite of her time. She had found celebrity. (Source: UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, findarticles.com, 2003)

Portrait of Ira Perrot ~ 1922 (Top)
Portrait of Romana de la Salle ~ 1928 (Bottom)

The two images above are courtesy of: http://www.delempicka.org

Beginning in 1922, Tamara participated in a variety of Parisian "salons" - particularly the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Tuileries, both of which attracted large crowds and received a great deal of press coverage at the time. The purpose of these "salons" was to provide new artists with exposure, introducing them and their work to the general public.  (For these first public appearances of her work, Tamara de Lempicka invariably used the masculine form of her family name: thus, the catalogues for these early exhibitions list her name as "Lempitzky," the name by which she used to sign her paintings at that time, instead of the Polish feminized version of her name, "Lempitzka.") But of the many salons and exhibitions held to promote the new and wildly popular Art Deco movement, a quintessentially French style that began in 1910 and which combined Cubism and design, none surpassed in scope or importance that of 1925's Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Moderne, an exhibition dedicated to the display of modern decorative arts and from which the style officially acquired its appellation. The aim of the Exposition was twofold: to establish France's reputation as the world's leading authority in the realm of decorative arts while at the same time showcasing its pre-eminent supremacy in taste, novelty, design, and array of luxury goods; it was also at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs that Tamara's reputation - as a valid artist - was firmly established. The Exposition was a defining moment not only in the history of the Art Deco movement but in the launch of Tamara's career as well. No doubt about it: from that moment on, Tamara's artistic career was on the ascend. (Sources: UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, findarticles.com, 2003; vam.ac.uk, 2003)

Portrait of Constantin Stifter ~ 1924 (Above)

Perspective ~ 1923 (Left)

Rhythm ~ 1924 (Right)

The three images above are courtesy of: http://www.delempicka.org

As with any artist honing his or her craft, Tamara's style evolved through experimentation to what would eventually become her signature style, totally her  own; initially, she began by dabbling with Cubism and  flirting with Futurism. Her portraits were of people she knew within her social orbit, people she associated with: namely, the rich, the famous, the socially prominent but it also included members of her immediate family. Galleries began to take notice of her work and to hang her paintings in their best rooms; art critics raved over her erotically-charged portraits with their melancholic looks and hints at Sapphic eroticism.

During the "Deco Decades" of the 1920s and 1930s, Tamara de Lempicka produced paintings that would become not only famous but iconic. One of her most sought-after (and instantly recognizable, massedly-reproduced) pieces was  "Auto-Portrait (Tamara In The Green Bugatti)." In this self-portrait, completed in 1925 and originally painted for the cover of the German  Die Dame Magazine,  a women's fashion magazine published by Deutscher Verlag in Berlin, Tamara portrayed herself as a modern woman at the wheel and fully in control of a speeding automobile: “dazzling and independent... who looks like she might fly away in her aquamarine car.” In 1927, a painting which featured her daughter entitled, "Kizette On The Balcony," won her first prize at the Exposition Internationale des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux. Four years later, she would win a bronze medal at the Exposition Internationale in Poznan, Poland, for another portrait of her daughter, "Kizette's First Communion." In fact, in ten years' time, between 1923 and 1933, Tamara painted five large-scale portraits using Kizette as her model and inspiration. (Sources & quote: UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, findarticles.com, 2003; delempicka.org, 2011)

The Sleeping Girl (Kizette) ~ ca. 1933 (Left)

Little Girl In Pink (Kizette In Pink II) ~ 1928/1930 (Right)

The above two images are courtesy of: http://www.delempicka.org

Kizette On The Balcony ~ 1927

Image above courtesy of: http://www.wikipaintings.org

Towards the end of the 1920s, Tamara had refined her own highly stylized "signature" (an amalgamation of Neo-Cubism and Mannerism) to such a degree - and so perfectly suited the era - that her art became emblematic of the period. With fame and recognition came love affairs with wealthy men - and, on occasion, women. The fact that she was a mother and a wife seemed to have mattered little to Tamara whose noted lovers included the Marquis Sommi Picenardi, a lover she took  while on  tour in Italy; Rafaëla, the reclining, voluptuous model of her 1927 painting, "The Beautiful Rafaëla" (La Belle Rafaëla), with whom she conducted a year-long affair; and Gabriele d'Annunzio, Italy's premiere poet, playwright and notorious womanizer, with whom the affair was merely a flirtation. (Tamara was more interested in completing a portrait of d'Annunzio that she was working on at the time than she was in consummating their affair; the relationship ended before the portrait could be finished.) (Source: UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, findarticles.com, 2003)

The Beautiful Rafaëla (La Belle Rafaëla) ~ 1927

Image courtesy of: http://www.delempicka.org

By 1928, Tamara had established for herself a reputable career and, as a result, was living a financially secure, prosperous, and, by all standards, a sophisticated lifestyle. In Paris, she had also met and become acquainted with an Austro-Hungarian aristocrat who collected many of her paintings: Baron Raoul Kuffner de Dioszegh. A patrician landowner in what had formerly been the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Baron Kuffner descended from a wealthy family of brewers and breeders and had hired Tamara to paint a portrait of his mistress, Nana de Herrera. It was not long before artist and patron became lovers - while working on the commissioned work, Tamara became one of Kuffner's mistresses; she soon divorced Taduesz. In 1933, the Baroness Kuffner died of leukemia and Tamara, seizing her opportunity, stepped into the role of Baroness Kuffner; the two married in Switzerland (shortly after the Baron's wife's death) in 1933. Her new, second husband gave her everything she could have hoped for: a noble title, great wealth, and social status. (Sources: UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, findarticles.com, 2003; delempicka.org, 2011)

Portrait of Baron Raoul Kuffner ~ ca. 1939 (Left)

Self-Portrait ~ ca. 1939 (Right)

Both images above are courtesy of: http://www.delempicka.org

De Lempicka became more in demand as an artist and continued to work energetically, painting everyone from writers, scientists, entertainers, and industrialists, along with some of Europe's displaced nobility and exiled, aimless royalty. She was so popular, in fact, that potential patrons - the wealthy and the royal alike - would stand in queue for the privilege of having their portraits painted by the famous Tamara de Lempicka. But with Europe facing political turmoil and a new menace in the form of a rising German Third Reich (1933-1945) and with another world war on the horizon, the glamorous life did not last  too much longer. (Sources: UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, findarticles.com, 2003; Blondel, A., en.lempickacatalogue.com, 2004; delempicka.org, 2011)

The Blue Virgin ~ 1934 (Top)
Joan of Arc ~ 1932 (Top Left)
Saint Teresa of Avila ~ 1930 (Top Right)

The Peasant Man ~ ca. 1937 (Centre)

Peasant Girl With Pitcher ~ ca. 1937 (Lower Left)

The Peasant Girl ~ ca. 1937 (Lower Right)

Beggar With Mandolin ~ 1935 (Bottom)

The above seven images above are courtesy of: http://www.delempicka.org

But sometime in the early 1930s, although still highly popular and in demand, Tamara underwent a period of deep depression that seems to have foreshadowed (and complicated by) a personal mystical crisis. It was not a crisis of talent or clout, as evidenced by her demand, but her production slackened considerably. At this time, Tamara only focused on painting religious subjects: sorrowful Madonnas and saints. (Interestingly, her choice of saints depicted were those with reputations for deeply intense mysticism in the Roman Catholic tradition: John the Baptist, Teresa of Avila [based on the Bernini sculpture in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome], Joan of Arc, and Saint Anthony.) By 1937, Tamara had attained a certain serenity, as reflected in her subject matter; turning aside from previous subjects, namely glamorous society ladies and rich industrialists, she began portraying ordinary persons of humble birth, simple peasant men and women, detailing their daily activities. It was as though the artist, encircled by wealth and fame, was yearning for a simpler life. At the time, so deep was her interest in spirituality and religious mysticism, that she underwent a temporary conversion - of sorts - which found her embracing the sort of ethical values that were at odds with the worldly vanities so esteemed by those in her usual circles. (Source: delempicka.org, 2011)

Image courtesy of: http://manavsevagujarat.com/

By 1939, the German Nazi Party - under the leadership of Adolf Hitler - was firmly established and its malignant influence was strongly felt across Europe; war, as was feared, loomed threateningly and inevitably. With high unemployment and a political atmosphere in chaos, it seemed out of place for self-indulgent rich art patrons to commission expensive self-portraits; galleries now sought abstract or surrealist paintings that appealed to the common masses - and reflected the mood of general unrest.

Having already been through the Russian Revolution and a First World War, Tamara was intuitively aware of what was about to happen in Europe: utter bedlam. Tamara had no intention of remaining in Europe to contend with yet another, second world war. With her encouragement, therefore, Baron Kuffner sold off his Hungarian land holdings and, in 1939, as Europe edged ever closer to the precipice of war, the Kuffners emigrated to the safety - and distance - of America, and away from the coming upheaval about to swallow Europe.
(Source: UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, findarticles.com, 2003)

Nana de Herrera ~ 1928/1929 (Top)
Woman With Mandolin (Femme à la Mandoline) ~ ca. 1933 (Left)
Portrait of Marjorie Ferry ~ 1932 (Right)
Portrait of Mrs. M. ~ 1932  (Bottom)
The four images above are courtesy of: http://www.delempicka.org

The Kuffners arrived in New York City in March of 1939, just ahead of the outbreak of the Second World War. With them, were some of Tamara's latest paintings along with several of her large-scale works, including the 1933 painting, "The Musician In Blue" ("Woman With Mandolin"). It was not Tamara's first visit to Manhattan - she had been invited there in 1929 to paint several portraits at the behest of some patrons; that voyage sparked several studies of the Manhattan skyline. (Skyscrapers had made such an indelible mark on Tamara's psyche that, upon her return to France, they appeared as backdrops in some of her new portraits of women.) But Tamara's intention of bringing along some of her older works was to eventually display them alongside some newer ones such as "Wisdom" and "At the Opera," which she had initially begun before leaving France but had not yet completed (they were finished in 1941). However, considering the era, no further portrait commissions were forthcoming; instead, she began to paint portrait after portrait of idealized young women and still-lifes. (Source: delempicka.org, 2011)

 At The Opera ~ 1941 (Left)
Wisdom ~ 1941 (Right)

Both images above are courtesy of:  http://www.delempicka.org

After New York - and even a country retreat in Connecticut - the Kuffners headed towards the west coast: sun-drenched California. In Hollywood, they moved into a film director's former house in exclusive Beverly Hills. Soon, Tamara became acquainted and made friends with some of Hollywood's most notable movie stars - Dolores del Rio, Tyrone Power, and George Sanders among them. Her new Hollywood friends conferred on her a nickname: "The Baroness with a Brush." Tamara, in a clever publicity ploy and eager to make her presence felt, held a contest at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) to find a model for her painting, "Susannah And The Elders." Adept at self-promotion, she took the initiative of sponsoring several of her own solo exhibitions at the Paul Reinhart Gallery (Los Angeles), the Julian Levy Gallery (New York), the Courvoisier Galleries (San Francisco), and the Milwaukee Institute of Art.
(Source: delempicka.org, 2011)

Young Lady With Gloves ~ 1930 (Left)
Portriat of A Young Lady And A Square Column ~ 1931 (Right)

 Both images above are courtesy of: http://www.delempicka.org

In 1943, the Kuffners moved back to New York. By now, Tamara's social life - and title - had begun to corrode her art and depreciated her reputation as a serious artist. Tamara de Lempicka, an artist who had married a baron, was now a woman of the past. Known as Baroness Kuffner, Tamara was now seen as a dilettante who had taken up painting merely as as a hobby; art was no more than a rich woman's interest. With America's fascination with European titles, the notion of a baroness dabbling with a paint brush and  oils was an intriguing but charming curiosity. No longer taken seriously as an artist, Tamara painted less and her once-frenetic output diminished. With the end of the war and the return of peace, Tamara had to face the reality of a new, changed world - changes brought on by the casualties of war; even the art world and popular tastes had been shifted by the war years and she felt herself disconnected from and out of sync with the mainstream. In January 1949, she left for Italy, where she spent six months. From then on, Tamara would become a perpetual commuter between New York, Paris, Florence, Capri, Zurich, Monaco, Marrakesh, and other ports of call. (Source: delempicka.org, 2011)

The Blue Scarf ~ 1930 (Left)
The Girls ~ 1930 (Right)

Both images above are courtesy of: http://www.delempicka.org

As her production gradually slowed, Tamara disappeared from the art world for nearly twenty years. Tamara's travel frenzy may have been inspired, at least at first, as a distraction as well as by the need to escape the artistic displacement she was experiencing at the time. Refusing to allow herself to be beaten, she plunged into abstraction. She began with a composite style, lending each work a theme through a few figurative elements; she then gradually allowed these to merge into the abstraction of interlacing lines. Gradually, she began producing more purely abstract compositions, punctuated by geometric forms devoid of volume. Endeavouring to continue creating portraiture - a genre by which she established her worldwide acclaim - she began to replicate some of her best paintings from the 1930s. (It was a natural route to take: in the face of the "new" or untried, which is often crippling, one often deliberately reverts back to what one has done best or is best known for; this is especially true of artistic personalities and those who have been exceptionally successful, taking refuge and comfort in the familiarity of  the past.) She may also have undertaken this new venture in the hope of jolting a new creative surge; unfortunately, it came to nought. By the late fifties, Tamara was again searching her way artistically. A small monograph published in 1957, for an exhibition in Rome, presents only works dating ten to fifteen years earlier, testifying to the artist's doubts with respect to her more recent production. (Source: delempicka.org, 2011)

Portrait of Ira P. ~ 1930 (Left)
Portrait of Mrs. Bush ~ 1929 (Right)

Portrait of Mrs. Allan Bott ~ 1930 (Centre)
The Telephone II ~ 1930 (Lower Left)

Spring ~ 1930 (Lower Right)

The above five images are courtesy of: http://www.delempicka.org

Then, in 1960, she ventured into abstract art and tried to reclaim her artistic reputation (she undertook a series of paintings obviously inspired by the abstract painter Serge Poliakoff (1900-1969). Reverting to a figurative  style, Tamara turned to landscapes and especially animals (often depicted in doubles): pigeons, roosters, rabbits, swans.)  Unfortunately, when her work was exhibited at a retrospective show at the Ror-Volmar Gallery in Paris in 1961 as well as at New York's Iolas Gallery in 1962, both shows were met with disinterest. Wounded to the core and embittered by the dismal failure of the exhibits, she was unable to cope with such a disgrace; Tamara de Lempicka gave up painting as a career and never exhibited again. (On a tragic note, to exacerbate her dejected mood even further in the midst of her failed exhibitions, on November 3rd, 1961, while crossing the Atlantic on a return trip from Europe to New York aboard the S.S. Liberté, Baron Kuffner died suddenly of a heart attack mid-journey.) (Sources: delempicka.org, 2011; UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, findarticles.com, 2003)

 

 

Nude With Sailboats ~ 1931 (Top)

The Blue Hour ~ 1931 (Left)

The Slave (also known as Andromeda) ~ 1929 (Right)

Nude With Dove ~ 1928 (Centre)

Nude With Buildings ~ 1930 (Bottom)

The above five images are courtesy of: http://www.delempicka.org

Distraught by her husband's death, Tamara decided to move to Houston, Texas, in 1962 where she could be nearer to Kizette and her two granddaughters. (Kizette had married a Texan geologist and moved to America in 1941.) Then, in 1966, the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris commemorated the Art Deco period by staging a special exhibition - entitled, Les Anneés '25 -  creating a resurgent interest and appreciation for this then-forgotten era of the 1920s and 1930s. Inspired by the exhibit, Alain Blondel opened the Galeire du Luxembourg and would eventually launch a major retrospective of Tamara de Lempicka's work in the early 1970s. 

As mentioned, another retrospective, this one dedicated entirely to Tamara's work at the zenith of her renown, from 1925 to 1935, was mounted in 1972 by Alain Blondel at the Galerie du Luxembourg, Paris. Entitled, "Tamara de Lempicka de 1925 à 1935," this exhibit - although the object of Lempicka's drawn out hesitations - provided an opportunity for a new and, more crucially, younger generation to rediscover some of Tamara's best works from those decades. The extent of this show's success came somewhat of a surprise to Tamara, and gave her the feeling that her work had not been forgotten or in vain but was, in fact, appreciated anew; once again, her paintings were very much in demand, valuable commodities on the art market. Art lovers pressed her for more famous-titled works - such as the iconic "Autoportrait" (also known as "My Portrait") and "La belle Rafaëla" - which would once more bear her renowned signature. Finally acknowledging and yielding to their demand, she agreed to produce replicas of her most popular paintings. Unfortunately, she no longer had the same sure hand as she had forty or fifty years earlier; nor did she possess the same color perception that had lent a mauve cast to the originals: the newly reproduced copies she now created could niether compete with nor in any way be seriously taken as equals of those originals. “Meanwhile, for her own sake, she could be found - alone and in the silence of her studio - painting version after version of her venerated St. Anthony.”

(Sources: delempicka.org, 2011; quote: UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, findarticles.com, 2003)

The Polish Girl ~ 1933 (Top)

The Breton Girl ~ 1934 (Centre )

The Brilliance ~ 1932 (Bottom)

The three images above are courtesy of: http://www.delempicka.org

Regrettably, de Lempicka did not live long enough to witness the enormous surge in popularity her work experienced during the 1990s. (In 1994, Academy Award-winner Barbara Streisand, who famously had a house filled with Art Deco furniture and artwork, auctioned the contents of her home. Included among the items sold was one of Tamara's paintings, the 1931  "Adam and Eve," which realized a final sale of $1.8 million; she had originally purchased it, in 1984, for $135,000.) (Source: UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, findarticles.com, 2003)

Adam and Eve ~ 1931

Image courtesy of: http://www.alef.net  

In 1974 and about six years before her death, Tamara de Lempicka decided to move permanently to Cuernavaca, Mexico. There, she bought a beautiful house called "Tres Bambus" in an upscale neighbourhood in 1978 where, a year later in 1979, Kizette joined her after her husband died. By this time, Tamara was quite ill. She spent her final days with her daughter at her bedside; she died peacefully in her sleep on March 18th, 1980. After Tamra's cremation and in accordance with her will, Kizette scattered her mother's ashes over the crater of Mount Popocatépetl, an active volcano.

(Source: UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, findarticles.com, 2003)

Unfinished Self-Portrait ~ 1928

Image courtesy of: http://www.delempicka.org

 

“There are no miracles; there is only what you make.”

 Suggested readings:

Passion By Design: The Art And Times of  Tamara de Lempicka (1998), by Baroness Kizette De Lempicka-Foxhall & Charles Phillips: Abbeville Press

Tamara de Lempicka (1999), by Gioia Mori: Giunti Editore

Tamara de Lempicka: A Life of Deco And Decadence (2001), by Laura P. Claridge: Bloomsbury

Tamara de Lempicka: 1898-1980 (2001), Gilles Néret: Taschen

Tamara de Lempicka: Art Deco Icon (2004), by Tamara de Lempicka, Alain Blondel, Ingried Brugger, Tag Gronberg, Royal Academy of Arts (Great Britain) & Kunstforum Wien: Royal Academy of Arts

Tamara de Lempicka (2004), by Stefanie Penck: Prestel

Tamara de Lempicka: The Artist, The Woman, The Legend (2007), by Emmanuel Bréon: Flammarion

Tamara de Lempicka: The Queen of Modern (2011), by Gioia Mori: Random House Inc.

La Régente: La Perle Napoléon

La Régente Pearl

Image courtesy of: http://image.nauka.bg

“The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:

Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” ~ (Matt. XIII: 45, 46)

This stomacher or sévigné containing the remounted La Régente pearl at its centre was part of the French Crown Jewels

Image courtesy of: http://www.perles.tv

References to the sea-born pearl are not only found in the Bible. The princely pearl - long-since affiliated with chastity, beauty and unblemished purity - has been valued in many cultures throughout the passages and pages of history and mentioned in literature pre-dating that of the New Testament. In Hindu literature, for example, the pearl is frequently associated with Krishna - the eighth incarnation of Vishnu - possibly the most popular and beloved god of Hindu worship. One Hindu legend tells of how Krishna drew the pearl from the depths of the sea to adorn Pandaïa, his daughter, on her wedding day. Many ancient Chinese writers credited pearls as originating in the brain of the fabled dragon; as such, pearls were believed to possess special powers and were utilized as amulets or charms against natural disasters such as fires, for instance. And as it is described according to the Qur'an, the Arabs believed that the very stones of Paradise itself are made of pearls and jacinths; the trees are hung with fruits of pearls and emeralds; and each blessed person admitted into the joys of Paradise is provided with a tent of pearls, jacinths and emeralds. 


Possessing pearl resources in rich abundance, the natives of India and Persia found both beauty and value in pearls; they were among the first peoples to collect them in great quantities (since ancient times, the Persian Gulf as well as the Indian Ocean have been rich in pearl-fisheries). In China, pearls were highly esteemed gifts and were often given as tribute by foreign princes to the Emperor. (Source: Kunz, G.F., & Stevenson, C.H., The Book of The Pearl, 1993)


Peculiarly evocative of Oriental luxury and magnificence, the allure of the pearl is that, being totally organic and non-mineral in origin, pearls are perfected by nature and found whole; unlike crystal gems, therefore, pearls are the only gems that require no enhancement by the hand of man. As a complete gem, the value of pearls is directly connected to and dependent upon size, weight, rarity, colour and, most captivating of all, lustre. It is a pearl's lustre that has enchanted men and women throughout the centuries and fueled the desires of connoisseurs in their search for perfect specimens. But of all the qualities sought in a pearl, perhaps the single most beguiling and irresistible attraction for the pearl-hunter/lover is the emotional response or affinity a person experiences in connection with the beauty of pearls - it is an attraction that compels the individual to want to possess them. That value - and visceral reaction - is exponentially enhanced and magnified when a particular pearl or gem has a significant historical - and especially a royal - provenance attached to it. In that context, 'La Peregrina' and its counterpart, 'La Régente' (also known as 'La Perle Napoléon'), are undoubtedly two of the most celebrated pearls.

Marie-Louise, Archduchess of Austria and Empress of France

(Painting by Robert Jacques François Faust Lefevre ~ 1814)

Image courtesy of: http://historyfan.tumblr.com

The oldest of seven children and daughter of François II (1768-1835), Emperor of Austria, Marie-Louise (1791-1847) was the second wife of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), Emperor of France and the niece of the beheaded former queen of France, Marie-Antoinette. In 1810, shortly after his divorce from Josephine and at the height of his power but also for political reasons as well, Napoleon, at the age of forty, was anxious to found a Bonapartean dynasty. For his bride, Napoleon chose to wed the eighteen-year-old Marie-Louise (by proxy in the church of St. Augustine, Vienna, on March 11th and again, in person, on April 2nd in Paris) who was fluent in French and had an affinity for art and music. In celebration of the occasion, Napoleon bought his new bride numerous parures (matching sets of jewellery), the intention of which was to dazzle all of Europe and, thereby, adding to the Crown Jewels of France. These parures were all commissioned from and created by François-Regnault Nitot (1779-1853), the court jeweller, and sold to Napoleon prior to 1813 for the amount of 6,600,000 gold francs (gold francs being the old French currency in use until the onset of World War II). (Sources: Morel, B., Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France, [1988] christies.com, 2011; napoleonexhibit.com, 2009; germanmilitaryhistory.com, 2011)


Amongst this collection of matching jewel-sets was a magnificent parure of pearls worth 123,429 francs, which included a tiara - set with 297 pearls - with, at its centre, a perfect drop-shaped natural saltwater pearl weighing 337 old grains - the size, shape and dimension of a pigeon's egg - making it the biggest natural, regularly-shaped pearl on earth: La Régente. For the La Régente pearl alone, Nitot charged Napoleon only 40,000 gold francs (about 500,000 euros today), or the equivalent of 10kg of pure gold. Nitot sold the pearl to Napoleon, who acquired it on  September 28th, 1811. A shrewd business man who knew the value of marketing, by offering a low-pricing policy to royalty - thus garnering royal patronage - Nitot ensured not only his own prestige among European nobility and the wealthy, fashionable elite, but, more importantly, generated business among them. (There is no known portrait of Marie-Louise wearing the tiara in existence and nothing is known about the pearl prior to its sale in September 1811.)
(Source: Morel, B., Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France, [1988], christies.com, 2011)

Marie-Thérèse Charlotte of France, Duchesse d'Angoulême

(Painting by Alexandre-François Caminade ~ 1827)

Image courtesy of: http://www.fanpop.com

After Napoleon was exiled and replaced by Louis XVIII (1755-1824) as King of France in 1814 (a period referred to as the First Restoration; when Napoleon again seized power in March of 1815 and once more was ousted and replaced by the return of Louis XVIII to power, that second reign is known as the Second Restoration), the new king ordered Evrard Bapst, the Crown Jeweller at that time, to remodel the crown jewels. La Régente, along with the remainder of the pearl parure of which it was a part, was set into the centre of a new  tiara  which was dilevered to the king on July 20th, 1820. However, since both Louis XVIII as well as his brother and successor Charles X (1757-1836) were widowers, the newly-transformed parures were worn by their niece, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte of France (1778-1851), Duchesse d'Angoulême and surviving daughter of the hapless Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette.  (Marie-Thérèse had married her cousin, the Duc d'Angoulême, elder son of Charles X, thus becoming Madame la Duchesse d'Angoulême.) The tiara was also worn by Marie-Thérèse's sister-in-law, Marie-Caroline Ferdinande Louise de Bourbon, Princesse des Deux-Siciles (1798-1870), Duchesse de Berry, wife of Charles Ferdinande, Duc de Berry, second son of Charles X. As with Empress Marie-Louise, there are no known portraits of the two princesses wearing the tiara. (Source: Morel, B., Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France [1988], christies.com, 2011)

Marie-Caroline Ferdinande Louise de Bourbon, Duchesse de Berry 

(Painting by Thomas Lawrence ~ 1825)

Image courtesy of: http://uk.ask.com

During the next reign, that of Louis-Philippe (1830-1848; born in 1773 and died in 1840), King of the French, the Crown Jewels were not worn until the dawn of the Third Republic. In 1853, La Régente pearl found its way into the possession of another empress - that of Eugénia de Montijo de Guzmán, the Spanish consort of Nappoleon III.
(Sources: britannica.com, 2011; Morel, B., Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France [1988], christies.com, 2011)

Eugénia María Ignace Augustine de Montijo de Guzmán, Empress of France

(Painting by Franz-Xavier Winterhalter ~ 1853)

Image courtesy of: http://www.gogmsite.net

Eugénia María Ignace Augustine de Montijo de Guzmán (1826-1920), a celebrated beauty in her day, was the daughter of a Spanish nobleman who had fought on the side of the French during Napoleon I’s Peninsular War with Spain. Eugénia arrived in Paris in December 1848, during the time when Louis-Napoléon (1808-1873) - as he was then known until 1852 - was vying for votes for the presidential office of the Second Republic of France (1850-1852). They were married on January 29th, 1853, after Louis-Napoléon had ascended the throne as Emperor Napoleon III (reigned from 1852-1870).

(Source:  britannica.com, 2011)

A lover of jewellery and fashion, Eugénie (as her Frenchified name became known) asked for the Crown Jewels and immediately set about transforming them according to her own taste. (As Empress of France and at the height of her power in the mid-19th century,  Eugénie naturally set the taste of fashion; it is in her role as a trendsetter that she almost single-handedly raised the rank of pearls to the heights of fashion, making them popular and fashionable again: she appeared in Winterhalter portraits bedecked in ropes and diadems of pearls and diamonds.)  On this occasion, Gabriel Lemonnier of 25 Place Vendôme, then Imperial Jeweller to the new court, was called upon to create a superb pearl and diamond corsage in a style that harked back to the18th-Century, at the centre of which shone the enormous - and newly-adapted and remounted - La Régente pearl, originally purchased by Napoleon I for Marie-Louise, the last Empress of France, in 1811. (Source: Morel, B., Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France [1988], christies.com, 2011)

Grand Pearl Diadem of the French Crown Jewels

Eugénie's tiara created by the Crown Jeweller, Lemonnier, using the Napoleonic pearls

Image courtesy of: http://www.latribunedelart.com

During the Third Republic, the Crown Jewels of France were exhibited only twice: once during the Exposition Universelle in 1878 and a second time, in 1884, at the State Hall of the Louvre in benefit of the School of Industrial Arts. Here, an octagonal showcase displayed the parures; one of the eight panels was entirely occupied by the pearl parure, in the middle of which sat Eugénie's diamond-and-pearl corsage. In the same showcase, there was also a fabulous tiara (see above photo) - also created in 1853 by Lemonnier using the Napoleonic pearls - which was eventually purchased by the von Thurn-und-Taxis family in the sale of the French Crown Jewels in 1887. (Since 1992 the tiara has been in the possession of the Louvre Museum.) (Source: Morel, B., Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France [1988], christies.com, 2011)

Close-up of Winterhalter's portrait of Empress Eugénie wearing the Grand Pearl Diadem

Image courtesy of: http://www.internetstones.com

Although no one knows with any certainty the origin of the pearl's name, La Régente or La Perle Napoléon, it is believed to be due to the fact that two Napoleonic empresses were elevated to the rank of Regent during their consorts' absence: Empress Marie-Louise's elevation to Regent by Napoleon Bonaparte during his absence while campaigning in Germany in January 1813; similarly, Empress Eugénie was also appointed regent by Napoleon III when he was in the front line during the Franco-German War of 1870. At any rate, in 1887, a disaster befell the French Crown Jewels: by parliamentary decision of the Third Republic and for eleven days, between May the 12th and the 23rd, a public auction sale - Vente des Diamants de la Couronne - was held in which some of France's national treasures were sold to the highest bidders and were scattered to the four corners of the world. (Source: Morel, B., Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France [1988], christies.com, 2011)

 

Portrait of Princess Zénaïde Youssoupov

(Painting by Valentin Serov)

Image courtesy of: http://lamodeillustree.livejournal.com

Prior to the sale and by demand from some of the most prominent and prestigious jewel firms in the world, the Administration of State Properties issued a catalogue; but the catalogue illustrations were found to be far too small and therefore, inadequate. At the request of the jewellers, actual-size photographs of the most important pieces in the collection were taken by the photographer Berthaud. Included in the sale and amongst Berthaud's photographs was Empress Eugénie's famous pearl and diamond corsage -  lot number 42. It was sold for 176,000 gold francs to a Frenchman, M. Jacques Rossel. For the sake of discretion, Jacques Rossel was in fact acting on behalf of Peter Carl Fabergé, Imperial court jeweller to the Tsar and the Imperial Family of Russia, the Romanovs. Fabergé had shown the auction catalogue to Prince Nicholas Youssoupov, a member of the wealthiest and most aristocratic families in Russia, who was interested in the enormous La Régente pearl; Prince Nicholas wanted to give it to his only daughter, the exquisitely beautiful Princess Zénaïde (1861-1939). (Princess Zénaïde's younger son, Prince Felix Youssoupov, would become famous for the notorious role he played in the assassination of Gregory Efimovich Rasputin on the night of December 16th-17th, 1916, in St. Petersburg.) (Source: Morel, B., Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France [1988], christies.com, 2011)

Portrait of Princess Zénaïde Youssoupov With Her Two Sons At Arkhangelskoe

(Painting by François Flameng ~ 1894)

Image courtesy of: http://blogs.privet.ru

At that time, in addition to numerous palatial estates throughout Russia, each amassed with artworks, objets d'art and other invaluable treasures beyond compare, the Youssoupov family owned the most fabulous privately-owned jewellery collection in all of Russia; the Youssoupov jewels were rivalled only by those of the Romanovs. Having inherited the historic La Régente, Princess Zénaïde must have been proud of owning a pearl larger than the largest one in the Russian Crown Jewels: although of a perfect oval egg-shape, the 'Empress of Russia,' as the Russian pearl was named, weighed a sizable 308 old grains but it was still smaller than the La Régente (which was 337 old grains or 346.87 new grains).
(Source: Morel, B., Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France [1988], christies.com, 2011)

Princess Zénaïde Youssoupov

Image courtesy of: http://lamodeillustree.livejournal.com

Princess Zénaïde, finding La Régente too large to wear as a brooch, was in the habit of wearing it as a head ornament, counter-balanced by another  extraordinary and historically important  pearl, 'La Pellegrina' (not to be confused with the 'La Peregrina' pearl), hung from a rope of pearls, just above her forehead.  Zénaïde also wore La Régente suspended as a pendant at the end of a long pearl sautoir necklace around her neck, sometimes diagonally across her bosom.


But Fabergé was not the only jeweller of note at the 1887 sale; the firm of Louis Comfort Tiffany, New York, also acquired many important jewels. However, Jacques Rossel, representing Fabergé at the auction, was only interested in Empress Eugénie's pearl-and-diamond corsage. This indicates that Fabergé may have been primarily after the La Régente pearl. While there is no record or account of what became of the pearl's former setting, the pearl-and-diamond corsage, after Fabergé had acquired it, it is believed that since the overall style of the corsage was out of fashion by then and having sold the pearl separately to Prince Nicholas Youssoupov, Fabergé used the rest of the stones and pearls for the fabrication of other jewellery. (Source: Morel, B., Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France [1988], christies.com, 2011)

Princess Zénaïde Youssoupov wearing the magnificent La Régente on a long pearl sautoir

(Painting by François Flameng ~ 1894)

Image courtesy of: http://blog.xfree.hu

“Learn from yon orient shell to love thy foe,

And store with pearls the wound that brings thee woe.” ~ Hafiz (Persian poet)

From Zénaïde Youssoupov, La Régente entered the turbulent 20th Century through her younger and only surviving son, Prince Felix Youssoupov, who presented the magnificent pearl to his own bride as a wedding gift in 1914: Princess Irina Alexandrovna, niece of Tsar Nicholas II. In the latter part of 1917, Russia was in the throes of revolutionary turmoil as the Red Terror swept through the country; drunken soldiers plundered properties, looted possessions and murdered estate owners without secondary thought or remorse. To save his own life and the lives of his wife and their young daughter, Prince Felix fled St. Petersburg for the Crimea - where the Youssoupovs had an estate - taking with him only a minute fraction of the Youssoupov treasure (mostly jewellery and a few paintings), including the beautiful 'La Pellegrina' pearl weighing 133.6 grains (sold by Christie's Geneva on May 14th, 1987, lot no. 556). When Felix, Irina and their daughter, also named Irina (known as Bebé in the family), finally fled Revolutionary Russia for good on April 11th, 1919, aboard the British dreadnought HMS Marlborough, they did so from Yalta, on the north coast of the Black Sea, along with the last surviving members of the Romanov clan.  Felix and Irina at first settled in London (where Felix had a house since his days at Oxford University, before the Great War, at 15 Parkside Street, overlooking Hyde Park) and then in Paris; as with most refugees, they believed their exile to be only a temporary displacement. And so, like many of their fellow White Russian exiles, the Youssoupovs always longed for the day when they would be able to finally return to Russia and reclaim their possessions. (Sources: Morel, B., Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France [1988], christies.com, 2011; King, G., The Man Who Killed Rasputin, 1995)

With that thought present in his mind and before leaving Russia just ahead of the advancing Red Army, Prince Felix took the precaution, in 1917, of concealing many of the Youssoupovs' prized heirlooms in the basement of his St. Petersburg residence, the Moika Palace (the same palace where Rasputin had been murdered), as well as in the walls of one of the five Youssoupov mansions situated around Moscow: Felix divided his mother's and his wife's jewels and stored some of the cache in one of a number of secret rooms of the Moika Palace in St. Petersburg; the rest were hidden at the Moscow residence. Deposited in the Moika Palace rooms were forty-seven thousand items that ranged the spectrum from paintings, musical instruments, snuffboxes, coins, tapestries, silver, antiques, weapons and, of course, jewels. The stash of jewels walled up in the Moscow palace remained concealed; until, that is, their discovery in 1925 when the Soviet government began a restoration project of the Moscow house. In his determination to outwit the Bolsheviks and preserve his family's priceless heirlooms, Felix had built a false wall beneath the main staircase, thereby enclosing what had once been a cloakroom. For years, the Bolsheviks had searched the house for hidden treasure but to no avail - until an acquaintance of Felix's disclosed the fact that there had once been a room below the staircase. Here at last, in the secret room, the Bolsheviks discovered a veritable Aladdin's trove: 255 diamond brooches; 42 bracelets; 13 tiaras and 462 pounds of assorted objet d'arts, among which were gold dinnerware and some very fine examples from the Fabergé workshop. It was in one of these troves - uncovered in either the Moika Palace or the Moscow mansion - that the superb La Régente pearl came to light. (Source: King, G., The Man Who Killed Rasputin, 1995)

The treasures uncovered by the Bolshevik Regime were laid out on a table and photographed; then the contents were sold at different times and in various cities, including Paris, London and Berlin. For this very reason, the prospect of ever finding the La Régente pearl again was next to nil. (Sources: King, G., The Man Who Killed Rasputin, 1995; Morel, B., Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France [1988], christies.com, 2011)

Prince Felix & Princess Irina Youssoupov of Russia

Image courtesy of: http://www.paraquesirve.net

No one knows exactly when the famous La Régente pearl was sold by the Bolsheviks; all that is known with any amount of certainty is that between the years 1950 and 1987, the pearl remained in the possession of one family (who wish to remain anonymous). On June 16th, 1987, the family decided to auction the La Régente at Christie's New York (lot no. 385). There is every indication that this same family was completely unaware of the pearl's legacy and its fabulous history (this is deduced from the fact that the pearl was presented anonymously in the auction catalogue without any mention of its weight or name; only its Russian origin was acknowledged). At the time, the pearl was mounted as a pendant suspended from a delicate tour de cou (choker) set with eighteen brilliant-cut coloured diamonds. However, the pendant supporting the pearl was older and comprised of a diamond Russian Imperial Crown atop four old-cut diamonds. It is likely that this is the very same pendant as it was offered by Prince Felix Youssoupov to his bride in 1914, who, as the only Russian niece of the Tsar, had every right and entitlement to wear the Romanov coat of arms.

Less than one year later, on May 12th, 1988, La Régente came up for auction once more at Christie's in Geneva (lot no. 701); at this sale, the pearl was sold for the first time under the name 'La Régente.' There was some doubt, among historians, as to the authenticity of the pearl's origin. The foremost objection being the pearl's weight (302.68 new grains instead of 346.87 new grains [337 old grains] - a weight difference of 43.59 grains).  The  pearl, after analysis at the Gübelin Gem Lab, (headquartered in Lucerne, Switzerland), appeared to have been peeled and re-polished although it is unknown when exactly this was done. (Pearls can lose their lustre and become dull over time, especially if they are exposed to acidic sweat through regular contact with skin. The solution would be to peel off one layer of the nacre, as one would do with an onion, before re-polishing it, which may explain the diminished weight of La Régente.) The other objection was the pearl's setting, which appeared to be an obvious copy of the diamond mount from which it used to be suspended from the 1887 corsage of Empress Eugénie. Nonetheless, the flattened back, the lustre and the shape were very much compatible with earlier descriptions of the pearl as noted in the inventories of 1814, 1832 and 1875.
(Source: Morel, B., Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France [1988], christies.com, 2011)

Princess Irina Youssoupov, niece of Tsar Nicholas II 

(Painting by Zinaida Serebriakova ~ 1925)
Image courtesy of: http://www.wikipaintings.org/

Allotted number 354, La Régente was put up for auction yet again on November 16th, 2005, at Christie's Magnificent Jewels (Sale 1331, Hotel Richemond, Geneva). With an estimated value of between $532,062 and $836,097; La Régente actually realized $2,483,968, exceeding all expectations. (Source: christies.com, 2011)


La Regénte or 'La Perle Napoléon' - as it is also referred to - remains to this day the biggest known regularly shaped pearl in the world. There are other beautiful pearls of note, but none surpass La Regénte in size, shape or weight. The 'Pearl of Asia,' (estimated to weigh 2,500 grains) is, in fact, a baroque (irregularly shaped) pearl - as is the 'Hope Pearl' of 1,800 grains, which is, moreover, a freshwater pearl. There exists in Iran a white pearl, set in a gold flower, estimated to weigh 600 grains but it is also baroque just as is another pearl without name, weighing 303 grains. With regards to the drop-shaped Shah Sofi pearl of Iran, discovered in the 17th Century and mentioned by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier - one of the most celebrated travellers of the 17th Century who pioneered trade with India and is especially famous for his connection with the notorious and mythical 'Hope Diamond' - as being sold to the Shah of Persia and weighing 500 grains, it has long since disappeared and no longer features in the treasure of Iran. The only pearl left to compete with La Regénte is the 'Empress of Russia' pearl, weighing 308 old grains as noted earlier. However, no one presently knows its whereabouts. (Source: Morel, B., Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France [1988], christies.com, 2011)

The La Régente pearl as it appeared in the pearl-and-diamond corsage of Empress Eugénie ~1887

Image courtesy of: http://nobleyreal.blogspot.com

“Heaven-born and cradled in deep blue sea, it is the purest of gems and the most precious.” ~ S. M. Zwemer

Suggested reading:

The Book of The Pearl (1993), by George Frederick Kunz & Charles Hugh Stevenson: Dover Publications, Inc.