Portrait of Tadeusz Łempicki (section)

This portrait shows Tadeusz Łempicki, the artist's husband, painted by Tamara de Lempicka in her signature Art Deco style. His pale face and slicked-back hair emerge from a sea of dark coat and crisp white scarf, while behind him a cluster of grey skyscrapers rises in sharp, geometric slabs. The whole thing feels polished and cool, like the man himself, who was a lawyer and something of a charmer in the social circles of 1920s Paris.

The story behind the painting is more tangled than the elegant surface suggests. By the time Lempicka worked on it, their marriage was falling apart, and she famously left one of her portraits of Tadeusz unfinished, refusing to complete the hand where a wedding ring would have gone. Her way of painting people, with smooth skin that looks almost sculpted from metal and bold blocks of shadow, made her one of the most fashionable artists of her day. Look at how the folds of his coat catch the light in hard, faceted edges, treated more like polished stone than soft fabric, which is exactly the crisp, modern glamour she became known for.