''The Musician'' ( French: ''La Musicienne'') also known as ''Blue Woman with a Guitar'' (French: ''Femme bleu a la guitare'') is a 1929

oil-on-canvas Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

painting by the Polish

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

painter

Tamara de Lempicka Tamara Łempicka (born Tamara Rosalia Gurwik-Górska; 16 May 1898 – 18 March 1980), better known as Tamara de Lempicka, was a Polish painter who spent her working life in France and the United States. She is best known for her polished Art De ...

Description

The painting depicts a young, elegant, dark-haired woman wearing a blue dress. The woman is absorbed in music making holding a guitar in her hands. The figure of the woman is set against a city landscape.

History and analysis

The painting was created by Lempicka in 1929 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. In 2009, it was stolen from the

Scheringa Museum of Realist Art Scheringa Museum of Realist Art (until 2005, Frisia Museum) was a museum in Spanbroek, North Holland, the Netherlands that housed around five hundred works of the 20th-century art mainly realist art and contemporary. It opened in February 1997 and ...

Spanbroek Spanbroek is a small city in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Opmeer, and lies about northwest of Hoorn.''ANWB Topografische Atlas Nederland'', Topografische Dienst and ANWB, 2005. History Spanbroek was ...

and went missing for seven years. In 2017, the artwork was recovered by Dutch

art crime Art crime may refer to: * Art theft * Art forgery * Vandalism of art Vandalism of art is intentional damage of an artwork. The object, usually exhibited in public, becomes damaged as a result of the act, and remains in place right after the ...

investigator Artur Brand alongside a stolen piece by

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...

. The painting is also notable in that it was featured in

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

's music video to her 1990 song ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

''. The female figure in the painting draws comparisons to classical muses or

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

sibyl The sibyls (, singular ) were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece. The sibyls prophesied at holy sites. A sibyl at Delphi has been dated to as early as the eleventh century BC by PausaniasPausanias 10.12.1 when he described local traditi ...

s and can be interpreted as an allegrical representation of the art of music, which is a traditional theme in art. However, the artist decided to portray the woman in a very modern manner: she has a chic

flapper Flappers were a subculture of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts (knee height was considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptab ...

hairstyle and her figure is presented against an urban landscape. This juxtaposition of old and new is a characteristic feature of many of her works. The skyscrapers visible in the background demonstrate "a maturation in Lempicka’s style, as they represent her exposure to the new technological marvels of America".

Art market

In November 2018, the painting was purchased by an anonymous buyer for over US$ 9 million at a

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...

auction in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. Lempicka's ''The Musician'' set a new record for the most expensive painting by a Polish artist at the time.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musician, The 1929 paintings Paintings by Tamara de Lempicka Portraits of women

Description

History and analysis

Art market

See also

References