La Belle Rafaëla by ‘revolutionary’ art deco painter to go on sale at Sotheby’s with estimate of £6m-£9m
When Tamara de Lempicka first came across the young sex worker Rafaëla on Bois de Boulogne in Paris, she was enchanted.
Recalling the meeting, the artist called Rafaëla “the most beautiful woman I have ever seen”.
She added: “Huge black eyes, beautiful sensual mouth, beautiful body. I stop her and say to her: ‘Mademoiselle, I’m a painter and I would like you to pose for me. Would you do this?’ She says: ‘Yes. Why not?’”
It was the beginning of an intense relationship – Lempicka and Rafaëla became lovers, and the model appears in several of the artist’s important nudes, including 1927’s La Belle Rafaëla, described by critics and scholars as “one of the most remarkable nudes of the century” and “the highest achievement of the painter’s career”.
