“I was the first woman who did clear painting—and that was the success of my painting. Among a hundred paintings, you could recognize mine. And the galleries began to put me in the best rooms, always in the centre, because my painting attracted people. It was neat, it was finished” - Tamara de Lempicka

Painted circa 1932, and reworked some twenty years later, La couronne de fleurs II encapsulates Tamara de Lempicka’s unique form of portraiture. Begun in 1932, as the Polish-born artist reached the height of her fame both as an artist and as a prominent figure within the dazzling, riotous world of the années folles, this intimate portrait exemplifies the classicized modernism that came to define the artist’s style. Here, the model is adorned with a wreath crown ostensibly made of myrtle leaves, the signature headdress of Aphrodite, goddess of love and desire. This wreath sits atop a gossamer thin veil that delicately drapes across the figure’s eyes and luscious red curls. Lempicka displays her mastery in the otherworldly translucence of this fabric, which cascades around the model’s head and softens the architectural lines of her volumetric form.

While these classical motifs bestow upon the model a timeless beauty, the composition and style remain radically modern. The artist’s novel decision to tightly crop the sides heightens the intimacy of our encounter with the model, caught in a moment of introspection or perhaps sensuous rapture, as her half-closed eyes suggest. She turns her head to the left as she raises both hands to the right, in a visual contrapposto that lends the composition a sense of balance. Depicted with exacting, architectural lines, the figure is both idealized and yet grounded and physical, embodying Lempicka’s stylized and sophisticated sense of volume. The identity of the model remains today unknown. While frequently commissioned to depict fashionable women’s portraits, Lempicka often also asked women she met in the whirl of her dazzling social life to pose for her. Her models always conform to Lempicka’s own smoothly polished, classically idealized type – itself a combination of her own appearance, as well as that of the stars of the silver screen, Greta Garbo among others.

Celebrated as a chic hostess and glamorous party-goer, Lempicka during the early 1930s was at the height of her fame. The professional and social aspects of her life were inextricably intertwined; each sphere of activity was indispensable to the success of the other, and together enabled her to attain her own chosen, independent lifestyle, still a relatively rare achievement for a woman at that time. All these qualities enhanced her reputation as the most visible female artist to emerge during the Roaring Twenties, the post-war, pre-Depression years of conspicuous extravagance and indulgent hedonism. Following a working sojourn in New York during late 1929 into early 1930, Lempicka became the première portraitist in demand among both wealthy Europeans and Americans, those who had an eye for the new, classicized modernism that had come to dominate the international, post-war style. ‘By all accounts, 1932 was an exceptional year for her career,' Laura Claridge has noted. 'As the Depression deepened, Tamara actually profited from those
with the most money to lose, who needed to show themselves and others that they were not afraid of the economic turmoil that surrounded them' (L. Claridge, Tamara de Lempicka: A Life of Deco and Decadence, New York, 1999, pp. 185-186).

Lempicka exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants that opened in January 1932, and the next month participated in the Salon des Femmes-Artistes Modernes, at the Galerie du Theatre Pigalle, a testament to her growing success. Alain Blondel, the author of Lempicka’s catalogue raisonné believes that the artist painted this work circa 1932 and reworked it circa 1950 when the Art Deco style was no longer in vogue. La couronne de fleurs II is illustrated as no. B. 168 in Blondel’s publication, and also pictured under no. B 167 in its original state (see A. Blondel, Tamara de Lempicka: Catalogue raisonné, 1921-1979, Lausanne, 1999, p. 262).

A known lover and collector of Lempicka's work, the renowned performer Madonna previously owned the present work, which she subsequently donated to a charity auction to raise funds for her non-profit organization, Raising Malawi, in December 2016. Lempicka's paintings and personal style have been frequently cited as an influence on Madonna's music videos, including Open your Heart (1986)and Express Yourself (1989)and Vogue (1990).
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