Tamara de Lempicka was the lone traditional easel painter in the entirety of the
Art Deco style. Her sources of inspiration ranged dramatically: she adored Italian
Renaissance painting; she was characterized by critics as a sort of modern-day
Ingres, although the comparisons were more often not intended to flatter; she absorbed the
avant-garde art of the era - particularly post-cubist
abstraction but of a "softened" style. Perhaps most influential was Lempicka's desire to capitalize on her social connections to create a niche for her portraiture, which most often featured well-to-do, cosmopolitan types. The Art Deco style, lavish in a less visually complex way than its predecessor,
Art Nouveau, was probably the ideal vehicle for her trendy style. Most notably, despite its decorative quality, her work provided her with an outlet for unconventional self-expression: truly a product of her era, the libertine golden age between the two world wars, Lempicka, a bisexual, made bold, liberated female sexuality the linchpin of her art.
