Tamara de Lempicka

Summary

Stuff You Missed in History Class: Tamara de Lempicka Hosted by Holly Fry and Tracy V. Wilson | Release Date: January 20, 2025

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Introduction

In this captivating episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class, hosts Holly Fry and Tracy V. Wilson delve deep into the life and legacy of Tamara de Lempicka, a pioneering artist whose distinctive style became synonymous with the Art Deco movement. Through meticulous research and engaging storytelling, Holly and Tracy illuminate both the glittering triumphs and the turbulent personal life that defined de Lempicka's journey.

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Early Life and Background

Tracy V. Wilson begins by exploring Tamara de Lempicka's enigmatic origins. Born Tamara Gerwig Gorshka, she claimed to have been born on May 16, 1898, in Warsaw, Poland. However, discrepancies in her personal accounts suggest she may have actually been born in 1894 after her family moved to Moscow. Her first name is recorded in various forms—Maria and Rosalia—adding to the mystery surrounding her early years.

"Tamara Gerwig Gorshka was born, according to her own account, on May 16, 1898, probably in Warsaw, Poland." [03:33]

Tracy highlights that de Lempicka grew up in a wealthy family, which afforded her extensive travels with her grandmother, Clementina. This exposure played a crucial role in shaping her artistic sensibilities. Additionally, Tamara attended a Swiss finishing school, further refining her cultural and social acumen.

"As a teenager, Tamara benefited from her relationship with her grandmother Clementina, in that the two of them traveled extensively together." [05:24]

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Marriage and Early Career

Holly Fry recounts Tamara's early adulthood, notably her marriage to Tadeus Lempicki, a prominent lawyer in St. Petersburg’s social circles. Their union seemed ideal at first, with Tadeus poised for success. However, the Russian Revolution of 1917 upended their lives when Tadeus was arrested by the Bolsheviks. Tamara's relentless efforts to secure his release eventually led them to Paris, where they began anew.

"Tamara met a young man named Tadeus Lempicki...they fell in love and got married. Things seemed perfect at this point." [05:41]

Despite their initial prosperity, the couple faced significant strains. Tadeus's experience as a political prisoner left him deeply changed, becoming less tolerant of Tamara's assertive nature. This tension set the stage for the challenges that would later define their relationship.

"He had just spent six weeks as a political prisoner, and he was very changed by that experience." [06:12]

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Artistic Career Beginnings

Encouraged by her sister Adrienne, who advised her to pursue a career independent of her husband, Tamara turned to art as a means of financial support. Tracy V. Wilson notes that Tamara's formal art education in Paris under Maurice Denis and Andre Lhote was pivotal in developing her unique style.

"Tamara started studying art formally with Maurice Denis, and Andre Lot was particularly influential on her, although she did soon go past him in skill." [09:04]

Holly Fry shares insights from Tamara's great-granddaughter, Marisa de Lempicka, highlighting Tamara's determination to succeed. Tamara famously declared her ambition to become the "most important painter in Paris," a goal she pursued with both flair and strategic foresight, such as purchasing diamond bracelets to secure her financial future.

"Tamara once told her, 'I decided I was going to become the most important painter in Paris... [I] would buy myself a diamond bracelet.' " [09:34]

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Rise to Fame

Between 1922 and 1924, Tamara de Lempicka's distinctive Art Deco style began to gain recognition. Tracy V. Wilson emphasizes that her precision and finished technique set her work apart in a crowded Parisian art scene.

"I was the first woman to paint cleanly and that was the basis of my success. From a hundred pictures, mine will always stand out." [17:19]

Her first solo exhibition in Milan marked the beginning of a rapid ascent in the art world. Holly Fry remarks on Tamara's confidence and audacious lifestyle, describing her as a "peacock" who balanced intense work hours with lavish social engagements.

"Tamara was a very showy human being. She was like such a peacock in all the great ways." [18:18]

By the late 1920s, Tamara's success enabled her to purchase and lavishly renovate a home on Paris's Left Bank, further cementing her status within elite circles. Her patron, Dr. Pierre Boucard, played a significant role by commissioning a series of family portraits, providing financial stability that allowed her to focus on her art.

"She used the money from that deal to set herself up in her home, including creating a very beautiful studio to work in." [18:18]

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Personal Life and Relationships

Tracy V. Wilson delves into Tamara's complex personal life, marked by numerous affairs and a hedonistic lifestyle. Tamara's relationships with both men and women often intertwined with her artistic pursuits, with many of her lovers becoming subjects of her sensual and glamorous portraits.

"Tamara had never been faithful to her husband... This unconventional way of life is reflected in a quote of hers: 'I live life in the margins of society and the rules of normal society don't apply in the margins.'" [20:06]

Despite her active social life, Tamara's marriage to Tadeus strained under the weight of her infidelities and his own dissatisfaction. Their tumultuous relationship ultimately led to divorce, highlighting the personal costs of Tamara's relentless pursuit of independence and success.

"The marriage ended...the left hand, where his wedding ring should have been, is unfinished." [22:50]

Her relationship with her daughter, Maria Christina (Kesette), was similarly fraught. While Tamara used Kesette as a model for her art, their bond was strained by her controlling behavior and priorities.

"Tamara was an artist and a mother, in that order... her daughter's life... was ruled by the dictum of what we call below the artist's hunger: Work before all." [23:47]

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Impact of The Great Depression

The onset of the Great Depression in 1929 coincided with Tamara's move to New York. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Tamara managed to sustain her career during this economically challenging period through strategic commissions and continued artistry.

"De Lempicka was able to weather the Depression and continued to paint and make a living as an artist." [24:34]

However, the escalating global economic crisis began to impact the opulent art scenes Tamara was accustomed to, subtly influencing both her personal life and artistic output.

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Continued Career and Later Life

Post-Depression, Tamara's career flourished with exhibitions across Los Angeles and New York. Yet, the outbreak of World War II shifted societal focuses, leading to a decline in art exhibitions and altering the trajectory of her career.

Holly Fry observes that Tamara's attempts to adapt to the post-war art world through abstract paintings were met with limited success, causing her popularity to wane.

"Her popularity really dwindled." [35:57]

Tragically, the death of her second husband, Raoul Kufner, in 1962 deeply affected Tamara. Isolated from the art scenes of New York and Paris, she embarked on a series of world cruises seeking solace but found little peace. Her relationship with Kesette deteriorated further as Tamara became increasingly controlling and critical.

"Tamara treated Cassette pretty poorly while they lived in Texas together... her behavior toward her daughter was hypercritical and often really cruel." [37:59]

In her final years, Tamara faced declining health and diminishing creative output, struggling to find relevance in a rapidly changing world. A retrospective exhibition in Paris in 1972 briefly rekindled interest in her work, but it failed to restore her former acclaim.

"In 1972, there was a retrospective exhibit of Tamara's works mounted in Paris. And this breathed life into her career briefly, but it did not garner the level of popularity that she probably hoped for." [38:35]

Tamara ultimately retired to Cuernavaca, Mexico, where she spent her remaining years in relative seclusion. Her ashes were honored according to her wishes, scattered at the volcano Popocatépetl, symbolizing perhaps the fiery passion that characterized her life and art.

"On March 18, 1980, Tamara de Lempicka died in her sleep... her final wish was to have her ashes spread at the volcano Popocatépetl." [40:02]

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Legacy and Posthumous Recognition

Despite the ebb and flow of her fame during her lifetime, Tamara de Lempicka's work experienced a renaissance posthumously. Tracy V. Wilson recounts stories of her paintings resurfacing and achieving significant value at prestigious auctions decades after their creation.

"That lost art... was located and in the intervening years commanded $4.6 million at auction." [40:36]

Further, her influence extends into contemporary culture, inspiring fashion designers like Giorgio Armani and appearing in modern media, including Madonna's music videos and stage designs.

"Madonna has used her art in music videos and as stage decor in live shows... she has a lot of very dedicated fans, all of which probably would have delighted her." [44:19]

However, not all critiques of de Lempicka's work are laudatory. Tracy V. Wilson cites critic Fiona McCarthy's observation of the darker undertones in her Art Deco aesthetics, suggesting a connection to authoritarian motifs.

"Her art exudes the dark and dubious glamour of authoritarian discipline." [43:29]

Nonetheless, Tamara de Lempicka remains an iconic figure in art history, celebrated for her bold style and indomitable spirit. Her life story serves as a testament to the complexities of balancing personal ambition with tumultuous relationships and societal changes.

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Notable Quotes

• Tracy V. Wilson [03:33]: "Tamara Gerwig Gorshka was born, according to her own account, on May 16, 1898, probably in Warsaw, Poland."

• Tracy V. Wilson [09:34]: "I decided I was going to become the most important painter in Paris... [I] would buy myself a diamond bracelet."

• Tracy V. Wilson [17:19]: "I was the first woman to paint cleanly and that was the basis of my success. From a hundred pictures, mine will always stand out."

• Tracy V. Wilson [20:06]: "I live life in the margins of society and the rules of normal society don't apply in the margins."

• Tracy V. Wilson [23:47]: "Tamara was an artist and a mother, in that order... her daughter's life... was ruled by the dictum of what we call below the artist's hunger: Work before all."

• Tracy V. Wilson [43:29]: "Her art exudes the dark and dubious glamour of authoritarian discipline."

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Conclusion

Tamara de Lempicka's life was a vivid tapestry of artistic brilliance, passionate relationships, and personal turmoil. Holly Fry and Tracy V. Wilson's comprehensive exploration paints a portrait of a woman who fiercely carved her path in the male-dominated art world of the early 20th century. While her legacy continues to inspire, it also invites scrutiny and reflection on the interplay between an artist's personal life and their creative output. Tamara de Lempicka remains a fascinating figure, embodying the complexities and contradictions that make historical narratives so compelling.

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Stay tuned to Stuff You Missed in History Class on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts for more intriguing historical deep dives.

Transcript

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[Holly Fry]

Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

[Holly Fry]

And today we're gonna talk about an artist who has kind of been on my radar for a while, but definitely as a bit of a back and then one of my very dearest friends suggested her because there is a really fabulous exhibit of her work going on at the de Young Museum in San Francisco right now, not for a whole lot longer. It's up until February 9th and I 100% scrambled for a minute to see if I can make it out there, but my schedule is not being cooperative with that plan, so I ordered a bunch of books and spent a ton of time researching her instead. So many thanks to my dear friend Kristin, who I adore for setting this idea in motion. Tamara de Lempicka was a trailblazer with an incredible, very fresh style that really defined and influenced the Art Deco movement. She lived a life that was focused on originality, both artistic and personally. She is a lot of personality. Heads up as we talk about her that there is very brief mention of domestic violence in this episode.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Tamara Gerwig Gorshka was born, according to her own account, on May 16, 1898, probably in Warsaw, Poland. Her parents were Boris Gerwick Gorshki, who was a lawyer, and Malvina Goric Gorshka. As she always told her personal story, her family moved to Moscow when she was still very, very tiny, but there's really been a lot of debate about whether that was the case or whether she was actually born there after the family moved. The timing of that move also suggests that she would have been born several years earlier than she actually claimed, so it's now believed that she was actually born in 1894. To add even more confusion to the story of her entry into the world, her first name appears in three different ways in addition to Tamara. Sometimes this is recorded as Maria and other times as Rosalia. There are also recorded entries where the name is some combination of two or those three possible first names. She had an older brother named Stanzik and eventually a baby sister named Adrian.

[Holly Fry]

There are additional question marks in Tamara's childhood, some of them quite tragic. Her father, Boris, possibly died by suicide, although Tamara always stated that her parents had divorced while she was still young. If you're starting to think, wow, she told a lot of stories that don't really always connect with what's verifiable that is accurate and you might want to just be accustomed to that. Boris was not part of her life, though. After her very earliest years, regardless of the nature of the end of the marriage, Malvina took her children and moved back to Warsaw, where she had grown up and where her family, which was quite wealthy, assisted in raising the children.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

As a teenager. Tamara benefited from her relationship with her grandmother Clementina, in that the two of them traveled extensively together. Tamara got a lot of exposure to arts and culture, and because of her family's wealth, she was also able to Attend a Swiss finishing school.

[Holly Fry]

While staying with relatives in St. Petersburg, sometime between the ages of 18 and 21, Tamara met a young man named Tadeus Lembicki. And Tadeus was handsome. He was a lawyer. He was very prominent in the St. Petersburg social scene. And the pair quickly fell in love and got married. Things seemed perfect at this point. The couple ran in very stylish and wealthy circles, and Tadeus was on track to get an appointment as a lawyer for the czar.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

But that meant that when the Russian revolution started in 1917 and the Bolsheviks came to power, Tadeus was on the wrong side of the revolution, and he was arrest. The exact reason is a little unclear. He was arrested in the middle of the night, and Tamara was not told why. Tamara's family had already left Poland, which was occupied, and they had headed to Copenhagen. But Tamara stayed in St. Petersburg, where the couple had been living, and looked for him. She even visited prisons to see if he was there. That didn't turn up anything. So she started asking anybody she could for help and finally got some assistance from the Swedish Consulate. It's not really spelled out anywhere, but it seems like she may have had an affair with the consul. He promised that he was working on Tadeus case, but also urged her to get out of Russia, which she eventually agreed to. He got her to Finland, and then the consul returned to Russia with the promise that he would keep working on freeing her husband. Tamara went to Copenhagen, and eventually the consul was able to secure Tadeus release. He was able to join his wife, and from there, they moved to Paris and sort of resettled there. They had their daughter, Maria Christina. She was born in Paris shortly after the move, and they called her Kesette. She would become a huge part not just of Tamara's life, but also of her art.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, there is some insinuation in most biographies that that consul kind of was like, hey, I will help you if you help me by sexual favors. So Tracy just referenced Tamara's art career, and that art career began in Paris. At this point, the family had nothing, and it seems that Tadeus was really struggling regarding a job. Tamara's sister Adrienne is often credited with advising her sibling. This is written different ways, but basically get a career and you won't have to depend on your husband. And this sort of makes it sound like Tadeus was just kind of kicking around like a deadbeat. But it is a lot more complicated than that. He had just spent six weeks as a political prisoner, and he was very changed by that experience. He was not the happy, go lucky playboy that he had been when the couple met. But Tamara also didn't have any patience for this change in personality, although she did step up to financially support the family. Tadeus, for his part, was not kind to her either. He turned down jobs that he was offered because he felt they were beneath him. And this led to arguing. And that arguing escalated to the point where Tadeus became physically abusive. Both of these people were miserable.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

As she was looking for ways to bring in an income through art, she was incredibly savvy about doing so. One of the things she did at this time was to add the duh to her name to become Tamara de Lempicka. She had a strong knowledge of art from her travels to museums around the world with her grandmother. But in Paris, she started studying art formally with Maurice Denis, and Andre Lot was particularly influential on her, although she did soon go past him in skill.

[Holly Fry]

According to an interview with Tamara's great granddaughter and estate manager, Marisa de Lempicka that was part of a short documentary prepared by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in connection with. With that exhibit we mentioned at the top of the show, Tamara once told her quote, you know, Marissa, when we left St. Petersburg, we had to flee. We lost our house, we lost many of our friends, we lost all of our possessions. We arrived in Paris with nothing. I decided I was going to become the most important painter in Paris. And after every painting I would sell, I would buy myself a diamond bracelet. So that may sound like a frivolous move, and certainly Tamara was a very showy human being. She was like such a peacock in all the great ways. But as her great granddaughter Marissa goes on to explain, those purchases actually achieved two things. So one, that stack of bracelets that did grow on her forearm telegraphed how successful she was. And two, those valuable pieces of jewelry served as a sort of insurance policy. Tamara knew that if her life once again turned on a dime like it had in Russia and she was left with nothing, she could use those bracelets as a potential financial cushion, basically selling them off to live.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

After we take a quick sponsor break, we'll talk about the way her career really took off.

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[Holly Fry]

By 1922, de Lempicka was ready to start showing her work. The first painting that she became known for in Paris was Portrait of a Young lady in a Blue Dress. This is an image of a woman named Ira Perrault, with whom Tamara had a romantic relationship. This painting doesn't feature the very stylized appearance that de Lempicka's work would eventually become known for. It shows Ira from the waist up, and she appears to be sitting and wearing a very simple, drapey blue garment. It says it's a blue dress. Honestly, it looks like a piece of fabric draped across her. Ira's dark hair is wavy. It looks slightly tousled. It's framing her face and her face has an orange red lip and her dark eyes are outlined with coal. Compared to de Lempicka's later work, it looks quite naturalist. Another painting, Portrait of a Polo Player, is most likely a painting of her husband, Tadeus. This image is also a pretty straightforward portrait. The man that it features is facing slightly down and away from the viewer, so his eyes are shadowed and his expression is fairly neutral. His clothes are shades of beiges, tans and browns. Another painting from her early showings once again shows a person close to her life, this time her daughter Kesette. This painting is called Portrait of a Little Girl with Her Teddy Bear, and it shows Cosette sitting down with her teddy bear seated next to her. One of her arms is draped around the bear's shoulders. They kind of look like they're sitting on a stoop or a set of stairs. This painting is a little less detailed than the other two we've mentioned, with more expressive brushstrokes that are still dramatic in contrast, but they're often softer than in the era in today's portraits. She doesn't use outlines in this one, so all of the vibes are very soft on it. Overall, de Lempicka's early works reflect the development of her personal style after her studies with Denis, who was a Symbolist, and Lot, who combined Cubism with more natural styles. And her early art shows that she is working towards becoming a unique voice in the Paris art scene. She later noted, and she said this many times in a variety of ways, my goal is never to copy, create a new style Clear, luminous colors and feel, the elegance of the models.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Over the next several years, de Limpica's singular style started to really coalesce in her work. Throughout the years from 1922 to 1924, she was showing her work alongside other artists in salons. But just a few years into her career, she also had her first solo show. That was in Milan. After the Milan exhibit, Tamara's rise to fame as an artist was quite rapid. She later attributed this speedy career progress to her technique and style, noting, I was the first woman to paint cleanly and that was the basis of my success. From a hundred pictures, mine will always stand out. And so the galleries began to hang my work in their best rooms, always in the middle, because my painting was attractive, it was precise, it was finished. So she wasn't wrong about aspects of this. Her work is very distinctive.

[Holly Fry]

I will say if I could just travel back in time and bottle like a tenth of her confidence, that would be spectacular. Yeah, that must be a great headspace to live in. By the late 1920s, she was making enough money to purchase a home on Paris's Left bank and to have it renovated in very luxurious art Deco style. A big factor in that financial success and stability was the patronage of Dr. Pierre Boucard, who had made a fortune by inventing an indigestion cure. And he had purch purchased some of de Limpica's work before he offered her a two year contract for a series of portraits of his family. And she used the money from that deal to set herself up in her home, including creating a very beautiful studio to work in.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Her lavish tastes were not isolated to art and design, though. De Limpica became well known as a party fixture on the Paris social scene. And she definitely engaged in a really sex, drugs and alcohol lifestyle. She was a work hard, play hard kind of woman who had an intense work ethic. That meant she would paint for nine to 10 hours at a time and then would unwind with some champagne and a massage before heading out for the evening. She had affairs with both women and men, and a lot of them became subjects of her work. That work was inherently sexy. The subjects always looked really glamorous. Her portraits of women showed them in very clingy, satiny garments. So their bodies are really effortless, evident beneath their clothing. A lot of her paintings are nudes where she depicts women's bodies without making it about the gaze of the viewer. These scenes are really self contained, with the subjects looking anywhere but out from the canvas.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, even when her subjects were dressed, often There would be like one breast peeking out or, you know, you could totally see everything about their body in the. Tamara had never been faithful to her husband. She told friends a story of meeting a handsome man at a reception just before her wedding and then running into him again shortly after she and Tadeus returned from their honeymoon and starting an affair with him. That affair went on for quite some time. And that was merely the beginning of a long line of affairs and lovers. In a lot of these cases, these were sort of long term affairs, many of which seemed to go on sort of simultaneously. One of her frequent painting subjects, Ira Perrault, who we mentioned earlier, was her girlfriend for years and years. But she would have sort of intense periods where she saw one person a whole lot and then a different person a whole lot and kind of move through all of these people that were part of her circle. This unconventional way of life is reflected in a quote of hers that is often cited. Quote. I live life in the margins of society and the rules of normal society don't apply in the margins. She often would just approach beautiful women in the street and ask them to model for her. And it was then not unusual for her to begin sexual affairs with those models.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

But Tadeus was a lot more socially conservative than his wife. He seems to have tolerated all of Tamara's affairs for a while, although he really didn't like them. But friction between the two of them ultimately escalated to a point where the marriage ended. This actually evidences a double standard in Tamara's life. She had a lot of affairs but never left the marriage. Tadeus, in contrast, met another woman, fell in love with her, and then left Tamara. Tamara was really devastated and felt completely betrayed. She begged him to reconcile and eventually he did agree. They tried again. The family went to Monte Carlo, where Tamara often traveled with Kesette to see if they could work things out. But instead they had just a colossally huge fight in front of their daughter. In that fight, he listed every infidelity that Tamara had ever had in their marriage. She told him it was just because he was weak and not enough. And that was the end of that. A portrait of today's that de Limpica had started working on in the late 1920s near the end of their marriage, includes one sad and pretty telltale detail. The left hand, where his wedding ring should have been, is unfinished.

[Holly Fry]

Tamara's relationship with her daughter through all of this was not great. Although she used Cazette as a model for a lot of her painting, she wasn't exactly what you would call a loving mother, she sometimes used her daughter almost as a prop in her fabulous lifestyle. But then she wouldn't always acknowledge her as her daughter publicly. She often told people while they were out that Cazette was her younger sister. In the preface of a biography of Tamara that Cosette worked on with a co author named Charles Phillips, Phillips writes, quote, as anyone who knew both Cosette and her mother will tell you, the two of them spent off and on a difficult half century together. Tamara was an artist and a mother, in that order, and her daughter's life, like her own, was ruled by the dictum of what we call below the artist's hunger Work before all Although de.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Limpica had risen to fame in Europe, she was also quickly sought after by clients in the United States, and at the end of the 1920s she traveled to New York to work on several commissions. One of these commissions was a wedding portrait of Joan Jeffrey, who was marrying Rufus T. Bush. Both Joan and Rufus were from extremely wealthy families. Joan's grandfather had made a fortune in the early automobile industry, and Rufus's family made their money in railway yards. The portrait, though, had a strange life. The Bush marriage did not work out and it ended in divorce. After only a few years, de Limpica's painting went into storage and it was forgotten. But hang on to that thread, it will come back.

[Holly Fry]

Yes, de Lempica was in New York on October 28, 1929, Black Monday, when the stock market crashed and sent the US Headlong into the Great Depression. The Depression happened at the same time that a lot of European nations were also experiencing economic strife. So the world that Tamara lived in, and specifically the wealthy circles of luxurious partying, had again changed. But unlike her experience in having to leave St. Petersburg with nothing, de Lempicka was able to weather the Depression and continued to paint and make a living as an artist.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In a moment, we'll talk about a few paintings from de Limpica's huge body of work. First, though, we'll hear from the sponsors that keep stuff you missed in history class going.

[Jon Stewart]

Catch Jon Stewart back in action on the Daily show and in your ears with the Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. From his hilarious satirical takes on today's politics and entertainment to the unique voices of correspondents and contributors, it's your perfect companion to stay on top of what's happening now. Plus, you'll get special content just for podcast listeners, like in depth interviews and a roundup of the week's top headlines. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Maria Tremarki]

Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarke.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry. Together we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime.

[Maria Tremarki]

Each season we explore a new theme, everything from poisoners and pirates to art thieves and snake oil products and those who made and sold them.

[Holly Fry]

We uncover the stories and secrets of some of history's most compelling criminal figures, including a man who built a submarine as a getaway vehicle. Yep, that's a fact.

[Maria Tremarki]

We also look at what kinds of societal forces were at play at the time of the crime, from legal injustices to the ethics of body snatching, to see what, if anything, might look different through today's perspective.

[Holly Fry]

And be sure to tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in custom made cocktails and mocktails inspired by the stories. There's one for every story we tell.

[Maria Tremarki]

Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Danny Trejold]

Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare Enter Nocturnum Tale from the Shadows presented by iheart and Sonoro. An anthology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of Michael Tuda Podcast Network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

[Osvaldo Schin]

Do you want to understand an invisible force that's shaping your life? I'm Osvaloshin, one of the new hosts of the long running podcast Tech Stuff. I'm slightly skeptical but obsessively intrigued and.

[Cara Price]

I'm Cara Price, the other new host, and I'm ready to adopt early and.

[Osvaldo Schin]

Often on tech stuff. We travel all the way from the mines of Congo to the surface of Mars to the dark corners of TikTok to ask and attempt to answer burning questions about technology.

[Maria Tremarki]

One of the kind of tricks for surviving Mars is to live there long.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Enough so that people evolve into Martians.

[Holly Fry]

Like data is a very rough proxy for a complex reality.

[Osvaldo Schin]

How is it possible that the world's new energy revolution can be based in this place where there's no electricity at night?

[Cara Price]

Oz and I will cut through the noise to bring you the best conversations and deep dives that will help you understand how tech is changing our world and what you need to know to survive the Singularity.

[Osvaldo Schin]

So join us, listen to tech stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Holly Fry]

One of de Lempicka's most famous paintings is her self, Portra Portrait in a Green bugatti. Created in 1929, this painting is often regarded as an iconic piece of imagery that shows a woman who is in charge of herself and her future self. Possessed. It's a close up on the artist driving from the point of view just outside the driver's side door. And a little in front of it. She wears a sleek driving cap with a blonde curl just emerging from it on each side. Her eyes look sly and her skin is a creamy white, and her pale gray clothing is sort of piled around her. Aside from the light green of the car body, the main pop of color is the deep red of her lips. This painting is a little bit claustrophobic in terms of it feeling like a very small space. But it is also incredibly striking, but it is very artificial in terms of its subject matter.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That self portrait was a commission for the magazine Di Damme, a German women's magazine. It featured the most modern of women and ideas. De Limpica had met the magazine's editor in Monte Carlo while she was on vacation, and the commission was born of that meeting. But this was not a version of de Limpica that actually existed. She didn't own a Bugatti. She drove her a gnome. Her car was yellow, not green. She changed up these details to create a piece of art that she thought would be more alluring, but would also carefully portray her in a way that was sort of personality propaganda. It made her look wealthier than she really was and colder. Portrait makes her look like a woman that's really fully in control of her life and her world, which is a contrast to anybody's reality, really. But this was definitely true of De Limpica, who had created a life that it was very glittery and very glamorous, but also kind of primed for turbulence because of all the drugs and alcohol and the stream of lovers that she engaged with.

[Holly Fry]

This kind of reminds me of we all have that friend who is just always embroiled in a million dramas. And they will swear to you that they hate drama and they don't tolerate it.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And I'm like, but there's so much.

[Holly Fry]

Though, you cultivate it. Another important painting in her oeuvre is Portrait of Ira P. Which she completed in 1930. This one's really, really striking because aside from the subject's skin, which has you know, a faint kind of peachy cream tone. The dominant tones of the painting are white, black, and red. Ira is wearing a white clingy dress, and she's holding white calla lilies, all of which is sharply contrasted with black shadowing. But then there is a bright red scarf woven through the image, and Ira's fingernails and lips are that same color, red.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

De Limpica created portrait of Marjorie Fairey in 1932. Like the portrait of Ira we just mentioned, the model is clad in white, but this image feels more intimate in that the white is not clothing, but simply a cloth that's draped around the subject. Her body is turned away from the viewer, and she looks back over her shoulder. Her blue eyes really jump off the canvas in an icy stare. She has blonde hair, which reflects the cubist influence of Tamara's early art education, because it looks like it's almost made out of ribbon.

[Holly Fry]

There is another interesting story of how Tamara ended up married a second time, and it is actually tied to one of her paintings. She had met the Hungarian baron Raoul Kufner in her heyday. He was a fan and a patron, and he had purchased a lot of her works before they met. In the late 1920s, Tamara painted a portrait of the Baron's then mistress, Nana de Herrera, as a commission for the Baron. This portrait was not especially flattering. De Lipica described not having been very inspired by her subject, writing, quote, when she came to my studio, she was badly dressed. She was not elegant, she was not chic. I thought, oh, no, I don't want to paint her. I can't believe that's the famous Nana de Herrera. In her account, Tamara resolved to try to do the painting anyway, and she details getting Nana to undress, in which state she was, per the artist, a little more interesting to look at. You can tell, looking at this painting, that she was not very inspired. The most beautiful aspects of it are the flowers that dot the scene. But this painting is often referred to as an assassination on d'lempicka's part, because soon Nanno was out of the picture and the artist was the one dating the Baron. Tamara married Kufner a few years later, in 1934.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Not long into her second marriage, Tamara's work started to fall off. She showed some signs of depression and was painting less and less as a result. The works she did produce during this time were darker in tone and less glamorous than her earlier paintings. It's as though the indulgence of the Roaring Twenties had really fueled her lifestyle. And as that Unsustainable lifestyle of constant parties and hedonism faded in Paris. It took some of her spark with it.

[Holly Fry]

One of her post-1920s paintings, Beggar with Mandolin, which she created in 1935, reflects this shift. It depicts an older man with white hair playing his mandolin. His face is a lot more realistic than most of her glamorous paintings, and his eyes, which look up and to the left of the painting, are sorrowful, and they're set into a face that is puffy and wrinkled. He wears many layers of clothing, and while he doesn't actually look, as the title suggests, like someone destitute, the overall effect is a sad one. But gone is the glitzy verve of her more famous works from the prior decade.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I feel like this is also all a reflection of the economic crisis that was happening globally, 100%. As World War II loomed, Tamara and the Baron decided to leave Europe and move to the United States. They bought a home in Connecticut. Although De Limpica was really all the time on the go, bouncing from coast to coast, she was still very much in demand as an artist. And there were multiple exhibitions of her work in Los Angeles and New York. But once the United States entered Into World War II, the art exhibitions really dwindled.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, it wasn't just her. Everybody was kind of, you know, galleries were not staging big exhibits anymore. It was not a time to worry about that. Everybody was really focused on the war effort. But then after the war, de Lempicka, who was hoping to find a new voice to match this new era, really foundered. Her work moved into abstract paintings that shared some of the shapes and line forms of her portraiture, but they didn't generally feature any sort of subject. And these did not go over especially well. Like, if someone wanted a De Limpica and they got this, it was not what they were hoping for or anticipating. And her popularity really dwindled.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Roald died in 1962 after having a heart attack aboard a cruise ship. And Tamara was really devastated. The two of them had been married for 30 years. At that point, she really unmoored herself from the New York scene completely. After he died, she sold all of her things and started traveling constantly. She circled the globe on a series of cruises, three times, actually. But if she was looking for some sort of solace out in the world, it does not seem like she found it. After all of these cruises, she moved in with Cosette and her husband and their two daughters. They were living in Houston, Texas. She treated Cassette pretty poorly while they lived in Texas together. Tamara seemed to think that Cosette was her personal assistant and expected her to just handle everything from her finances to her travel travel arrangements while Tamara tried to take over Gazette's social circle. Even people who were very close to Tamara during this time have acknowledged that her behavior toward her daughter was hypercritical and often really cruel. She dictated the way that Cassette had to dress and style her hair if she wanted to be seen in public with her mother, and was just generally very deeply controlling.

[Holly Fry]

De Lempica also seemed to go through the kind of challenges that often befall people as they age and struggle to find their way in an ever changing world. She often bemoaned that her art was suffering because she couldn't get the same kinds of art supplies that she could purchase years earlier in Paris. She even made her son in law, who was a scientist, mix paints for her. But she was never pleased with the outcome. And she also often stated that people had changed so much from when she was young, and that they were no longer stylish or educated, or that everyone was now of poor breeding.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1972, there was a retrospective exhibit of Tamara's works mounted in Paris. And this breathed life into her career briefly, but it did not garner the level of popularity that she probably hoped for. Then, when there was a potential follow up exhibition in New York, Tamara made a lot of demands about the gallery that was interested in exhibiting her work, including that it would have to knock through an exterior wall to put in a new window. Her behavior really soured the gallery on the deal. This New York exhibit never happened.

[Holly Fry]

In 1978, D'Lempicka moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico to retire. She had visited Cuernavaca many times, and as her place in the art worlds of New York, Paris and other cities had dwindled, this had really become where she went for solace. She lived there the rest of her life in a home called Tres Bambou. She often harangued Cosette to come and visit her and told her daughter that she felt abandoned. But Cosette was dealing with her own family situation. Her husband had cancer, and in prioritizing him and his care, Cosette had, according to Tamara, betrayed her mother. Dilempica frequently rewrote her will during this time, often cutting Gazette out completely and insisting that her friends would instead get everything when she died.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

When Cosette's husband Harold died in 1979, Cosette, whose daughters were grown, moved to Cuernavaca to be with her mother and take care of her full time as her health was declining. It was just a few months later, on March 18, 1980, that Tamara de Lempicka died in her sleep. She had already made all of the arrangements for her funeral and paid for everything, but her final wish was to have her ashes spread at the volcano Popocarpetl, which her daughter and several of her friends managed to do by helicopter.

[Holly Fry]

There have been a number of fairly triumphant codas to Tamara de Lempicka's life and career since her passing. We mentioned earlier that portrait of Mrs. Joan Jeffrey Bush that was forgotten. That painting stayed stored away untouched for almost six decades after Tamara's daughter Kesette published the first edition of her book about her mother, Passion by Design, in 1987. Joan's daughter read it and realized that their family might still have that lost painting. That lost art, which wasn't so much lost as just forgotten, was located and in the intervening years commanded $4.6 million at auction. That auction took place more than 20 years ago, so the value of the piece will have risen significantly. And it is a very spectacular piece with the subject clad in red. And it almost looks like it could have been painted in the 1980s in the style of Patrick Nagle.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That story and another about a lost de Limpica were shared by her great granddaughter Marissa de Limpica. In a new forward to Cosette's book when it was reissued in 2020, the second story of lost art is actually one of a theft. In 2009, another painting that Tamara made the same year as the portrait of Mrs. Bush. This one, titled La Musicienne, was stolen from the Schengen Museum of Realist Art in the Netherlands. That theft included another painting, which was Adolescence by Salvador Dali. In a remarkable twist, though, these two artworks are in the tiny single digit percentage of stolen art that's actually successfully recovered. Both of them were found by private investigator Arthur Brand, who specializes in art recovery and was able to locate the work in the hands of a criminal organization and negotiate with them to get them back. I really feel like we've talked about something that Arthur Brand has recovered on.

[Holly Fry]

Unearthed before, probably because his name pops up everywhere when you talk about art. We did a season on criminalia of art heists and he came up several times.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, so this piece was also sold at auction in 2018 for a whopping $9 million.

[Holly Fry]

In February 2020, Christie's put de Lempicka's 1932 painting Portrait of Marjorie Fairy up for auction with an expected range of 8 million to 12 million pounds, where they thought it was gonna sell. It sold for £16,380,000, equivalent to $21.2 million. The only other woman artist who has sold a piece for more than that is Georgia O'Keeffe, whose jimson weed/white flower number one sold her 44.4 million in 2014.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Not all the modern critics of her work have been ebullient, however. In 2004 Fiona McCarthy wrote in the Guardian quote, de Limpica was an artist of the fascists superworld. Her portraits were allied to the Call to Order movement, the return to monumental realism and European art. Her art exudes the dark and dubious glamour of authoritarian discipline. When she paints the Duchess de la Salle, the Duchess is in jackboots, one hand thrust in her pocket in an attitude of menace. It is a tremendous portrait, painted with the sheer theatrical enjoyment, the unerring sense of decor of De Limpica's best work. So even in the beauty some see a very clear, dark note.

[Holly Fry]

De Limpica continues to captivate and inspire today. Madonna has used her art in music videos and as stage decor in live shows. So if you are a fan of Madonna, you have seen Dlempica's work for sure, but she has also inspired fashion like the Giorgio Armani prive Fall Winter 20222023 collection and there have been stage adaptations of her life story and last year a documentary about her titled the True Story of Tamara de Lempicka and the Art of Survival that is limited enough availability that I have not been able to see it. De Lempicka, while she is a very complicated character, remains very iconic and her work is instantly recognizable and she has a lot of very dedicated fans, all of which probably would have delighted her.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Do you also have some listener mail?

[Holly Fry]

You know that I do. This listener mail is in fact about Christmas. This is from our listener, Kira. I hope I am saying your name correctly, who writes hi Tracy and Holly. Thank you for all the wonderful hours of entertainment and knowledge. I just listened to your episode on Christmas decorations. I have never had a Christmas Eve without live candles on the tree. Live candles are still very common in Denmark with about 40% of households having live candles on the Christmas tree. While it is more dangerous than electric lights, I want to share why it is not as dangerous as it might seem. The lights are special Christmas tree lights, slightly larger than a birthday cake light with with wings that stop about a centimeter before the end of the candle, thus preventing the candles from burning down. We usually only put up our Tree on the 23rd so it is still fresh. We never leave a tree with lights on without observation and always have a bucket of water, etc. Close by. Never had to use it. For me, the lighting of the Christmas tree is the most special part of Christmas. While I see the tree during the day, in the evening everyone goes into a different room while one person lights the tree. Then we all go in to look at the tree and join hands. I'm choked up. This sounds so sweet. Walking around the Christmas tree singing Christmas songs and carols. Beautiful Kira attached photos of her tree. There's also a sparkler on top, which is, she says, a tradition in her family, but less common in general. It's very, very beautiful, I will say. And her kids look just full of wonder. It also still terrifies me. I don't know if I have just grown up in the the US era of ul. Safety tags on everything that tell me that it's all gonna go up in flames, that I'm like, I don't. I don't know how I feel, but it's so beautiful. I completely understand. And it is one of those things where I bet if it is something that happens for like an hour in the evening, it feels extra magical and beautiful. So thank you, thank you, thank you so much for sharing this with us. It got me choked up. It's so sweet and it is quite quite beautiful. Even if I'm scared, you can write to us and make me cry if you'd [e-mail] you can also subscribe to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Jon Stewart]

Catch Jon Stewart back in action on the Daily show and in your ears with the Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. From his hilarious satirical takes on today's politics and entertainment to the unique voices of correspondents and contributors, it's your perfect companion to stick. Stay on top of what's happening now. Plus, you'll get special content just for podcast listeners, like in depth interviews and a roundup of the week's top headlines. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Maria Tremarki]

Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarke.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Frey. Together we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime.

[Maria Tremarki]

Each season we explore a new theme, from poisoners to art thieves.

[Holly Fry]

We uncover the secrets of history's most interesting figures, from legal injustices to body.

[Maria Tremarki]

Snatching, and tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in cocktails and mocktails inspired by each story.

[Holly Fry]

Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Danny Trejold]

You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow. Join me, Danny Trejold and step into the Flames of Fright, an anthology podcast of modern day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to nocturnum on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

[Osvaldo Schin]

Do you want to see into the future? Do you want to understand an invisible force that's shaping your life? Do you want to experience the frontiers of what makes us human? On tech stuff we travel from the mines of Congo to the surface of Mars, from conversations with Nobel Prize winners to the depths of TikTok to ask burning questions about technology, from high tech to low culture and everywhere in between. Join us Listen to tech stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.