Abstract Composition

This recently discovered watercolor, is among Tamara de Lempicka’s rare ventures into pure abstraction. It may have originated as an abstract study for a still-life arrangement, or as a chromatic exercise, but it is also a remarkably vivid composition, immediately eye-catching and formally resolved. It also demonstrates Lempicka’s keen awareness of the palette and pictorial rhythms found in Fernand Léger paintings from 1919–20, and it resonates in particular with the MFAH’s Man with a Cane, 1920. While Lempicka did not continue in this abstract vein, it lays the groundwork for her art deco styling, and in particular her volumetric treatment of the figure. The palette, dominated by primary and complementary secondary hues also predicts the palette that defined most of her signature works of the following decade.