W cieniu Tamary
Overshadowed by Tamara

Summary/Abstract: Tamara Łempicka (Tamara de Lempicka) created her own legend, modelling the history of her family to nurture the narrative meant to demonstrate how unusual she was, how exotic her life had been. Her biography generally accepted for publications disseminating unverified information continues to conceal many secrets which, as much as not actually having significant impact on Łempicka's oeuvre, tell us much about the artist's personality. Tamara meticulously hid the Jewish descent of her mother Malwina Dekler, inventing the story of a rich Polish family with typical intelligentsia fondness for high-profile music, living in Warsaw from the times of Napoleon. Meanwhile, the Deklers were a typical middle-class family professing Judaism, bonded with Warsaw for at least two generations. Among the family it was Tamara's mother's brother Zygmunt (?-1919) who was a particularly interesting individual: pioneer of motoring and aviation in Poland, an engineer, publisher, pilot, and a soldier of the First Legions Infantry Division, he most likely perished in the Polish-Soviet War. His grave is to be found in the Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw's Okopowa Street. Thanks to him at least a part of Tamara's family's history has been revealed. In the legend created by Tamara a special role was played by her first husband Tadeusz Łempicki, whose personality was totally overshadowed by the artist. Meanwhile, both himself, but possibly first of all his family as typical representatives of Polish intelligentsia living in St. Petersburg, deserve more attention. All the new findings related to Tamara Łempicka should become the basis for further research into the artist's phenomenon.

• Details
• Contents