S2 Ep15: Tamara de Lempicka

Great European Lives with Charlie Connelly

In this episode, host Charlie Connelly discusses the life of Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka. Her Self-Portrait in the Green Bugatti has been said to define the 1920s in a single image, becoming the personification of the Jazz Age. Her aim was never to emulate, but to create a new style with bright, luminous colours, drawing out elegance from the models she used. However, the following decade was defined by a rise in autocracy and, troubled by the Hitler youth, she and her husband left for America. However, the country didn’t quite understand her and gossip columns named her ‘the Baroness with the brush’. Still, she continued to epitomise the time between the Russian revolution and Nazism. Enjoyed this episode? Let us know by tweeting @TheNewEuropean.