The “Self-Portrait” Painting by Tamara de Lempicka

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Tamara de Lempicka’s painting Self-Portrait (Tamara in a Green Bugatti), created in 1928, is a representation of her early career and has come to represent her. Although there is some fabrication in both this photo and her scandalous biography, which she altered as she saw fit. Before fleeing to the US at the start of World War II, Lempicka produced a number of influential works during her time in Paris in the late 20s and early 30s (Artdex, n.d.). She rose to prominence as one of the leading painters of her day and produced a number of pieces, but her most important one was Self-Portrait (Tamara in a green Bugatti).

A fascinating narrative surrounds how Self-Portrait was created. It is stated that Tamara’s self-portrait appeared in the next edition of a prestigious German fashion magazine after the editor was moved by the sight of her exiting her automobile in front of a five-star hotel in Monte Carlo (Arthive, n.d.). Immediately after the request, Tamara painted her most famous work there. De Lempicka is seen in the portrait with a leather racing jacket, matching gloves, and a big gray scarf. De Lempicka did not actually possess a green Bugatti; instead, she drove a little yellow Renault, in keeping with her reputation as an eccentric woman who loved to set her own rules. Although a touch egotistical, this portrait has come to be seen as a representation of female freedom. The painting challenges the cliché of the female role by demonstrating the capacity of an automobile to equal the female figure and by establishing itself as a symbol of independence and power (Von Buhr, 2020). Lempicka was seated in the driver’s seat in Self-Portrait, but on the other side so that she was closer to the observer, in a setting where she ostensibly personified wealth and power.

Understanding de Lempicka’s art is crucial since it has come to define the Art Deco movement. The self-portrait of Tamara in the green Bugatti is supposed to be a representation of women’s emancipation. The purpose of De Lempicka as an artist was to accurately capture Paris during the period in her artwork—a location where the severe fascist discipline offered a thin veneer of delusion while also aspiring to lasciviousness (Artdex, n.d.). At first sight, nothing was exactly as it seemed. The interesting fact is that Bugatti on the painting was not even a Bugatti; it was a Renault, and it was yellow rather than green. De Lempicka was a classicist in essence and was influenced by Renaissance art from an early age. It is interesting that she used photographic lighting and commercial design techniques for her art against styled modern architectural settings, fusing classic portraiture with elegant and contemporary features, which was unusual combination (Gotthardt, 2020). De Lempicka’s avant-garde artistic aimed at merging the functionalism of the day with illusion and imagination in an environment where rigid social institutions were frequently combined with fury (Von Buhr, 2020). She was essentially a product of her era, a moment of unpredictability and change.

This picture has been the subject of considerable debate. It is interesting than before it was created, the popular French weekly Vu had an illustration of a young woman driving a sports vehicle on its front page (Von Buhr, 2020). Self-Portrait (Tamara in a Green Bugatti) looked a lot like the model portrayed in the French magazine. As a result, several critics claimed that Tamara merely stole the concept from a well-known image without giving it any credit. The aggressive social and political stance Tamara took only aggravated the situation. There was, however, no definite proof that French photography was anything more than an influence. Overall, Self-Portrait (Tamara in a Green Bugatti) became an elegant, independent, and emancipated representation of powerful women in an ambivalent and cruel world where nothing can be taken for granted.