| The Dream | |
|---|---|
.jpg.webp) | |
| Artist | Tamara de Lempicka |
| Year | 1927 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas[1] |
| Movement | Art Deco |
| Dimensions | 81 cm × 60 cm (32 in × 24 in) |
| Location | Private collection, Monaco |
The Dream (French: Le rêve [lə ʁɛːv], or Le rêve (Rafaëla sur fond vert)) is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Polish Art Deco artist Tamara de Lempicka. The painting measures 81 by 60 centimetres (32 by 24 in) and was completed in 1927.
Description
The painting shows a figure of a young, nude woman with shortly-cropped dark hair sitting in an armchair partly covered by a sheet and set against a green background. The woman is wearing a gold bracelet on her right hand.
History and analysis
Painted in 1927 by Lempicka in Paris, the portrait can be described as a suggestive portrayal of a femme fatale in repose.
The artwork was first exhibited in 1929 at the Carnegie International Exhibition in the United States as The Dream though it has also been frequently referred to as Le rêve (Rafaëla sur fond vert) as such a title appears in Lempicka's own photo-archives. Rafaëla, who served as the model for the picture, was a young woman whom the painter met in the Bois de Boulogne, an area notoriously frequented by prostitutes. She would become one of Lempicka's most frequent models in her art of the late 1920s. According to Patrick Bade, her rendering of Rafaëla is "amongst the most potently erotic works of de Lempicka in which the desire of the artist for the soft and curvaceous body of the model is palpable".[2]
Elizabeth Gorayed further notes that the sensuous and seductive depiction of the young woman was meant to enchant the viewer of the artist's composition. She goes on to observe the model's similarity of appearance to some of the most popular Hollywood film stars of the era stating that the artist wanted to encapsulate the beauty standards of the 1920s "fast and modern society".[3]
Art market
In 2011, the painting was sold for US$8.5 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York. It was a record-breaking price for a Lempicka painting at the time.[4]
See also
References
- ↑ "Le rêve by Tamara de Lempicka". artnet.com. Archived from the original on 29 December 2023. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
- ↑ "37. Tamara de Lempicka". sothebys.com. Archived from the original on 25 January 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
- ↑ "Highlight: Tamara de Lempicka's 'Le Rêve (Rafaëla sur fond vert)'". youtube.com. 11 October 2011. Archived from the original on 1 January 2024. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
- ↑ Priyanka Patil (19 March 2021). "Tamara de Lempicka's Glamorous Artwork and Its History at Auction". auctiondaily.com. Archived from the original on 9 February 2023. Retrieved 1 January 2024.