1924b-1925a

• Title: At the Café
• Year: 1925
• Catalog ID: B.055
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Height: 100 cm
• Width: 73 cm
• Signature: T.DE LEMPITZKA (bottom right)

"- 1972 - Galerie du Luxembourg, ""Tamara de Lempicka de 1925 à 1935"", Paris, France, 1994 - Accademia di Francia (Villa Medici), ""Tamara de Lempicka/ Tra eleganza e trasgressione"", Rome, Italy"

"13/10/1977 - PARIS. Ader, Picard, Tajan. Drouot RG, # 201 $ 5 957, 06/12/1975 - PARIS. Loudmer, Poulain (Palais Galliera), # 93 $ 3 068"

"1968 - Private collection - Switzerland, 1979 - Barry Friedman Ltd. - U.S.A., 1980 - Private collection - U.S.A."

"1925, Chronology: De Lempicka won public acclaim for her one-woman show at the Bottega di Poesia in Milan, organised by Count Emmanuele di Castelbarco. During a prolonged stay in the city she made the acqaintance of a number of italian aristocrats with influence in the art world.

Marquis SOMMI, Portrait retained by Lempicka: According to Gioia Mori, "" the Marquis Guido di Girolamo Sommi Picenardi was introduced to Tamara by the Count Emanuele de Castelbarco. At one point, he became her lover. He was a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor with the Knights of Malta, and had married Dame Anna Maria Pignatelli in Rome on 10 March 1917 (op.cit., p.58). The rest of the biographical note seems mistaken, presenting the marquis as ""a fascist from the start"" - which is to mistake him with his cousin (Gianfrancesco). On the contrary, according to Gianbattista Brambilla, the marquis suffered under the government and was even tortured by the Germans in 1945. Born in Menton in 1894, he died at his castle of Torre de Picenardi in Cremone in 1949. Guido Sommi Picenardi was a vanguard musician, who wrote numerous ballets and pantomimes presented in Rome, Venice, Milan, Brussels, and Paris. His wife, Mananà (Maria Anna Pignatelli Aragona Cortès) was a sculptor. Lempicka described the couple in the following terms: ""Mananà and Guido Sommi Picenardi, whose bohemian ways would now be labelled as somewhat ""hippy"", spearheaded a young and brilliant circle of friends kept busy every night by parties, operas, ballets, music and dinners in private palaces with uniformed staffs. On these occasions, the women were beautifully dressed and covered with jewelry; the men were all very handsome and elegant. The concirca ations were most cultivated and witty."" The two portraits of Guido Sommi had remained in the artist's studio."

(Portrait du Marquis Sommi *)

During her first long stay in Milan in 1925, Lempicka greatly enjoyed the company of this attractive avant-garde musician, whose wife - Princess Pignatelli (Mananà) - was a sculptress. The couple introduced Lempicka to the Futurist circle, and the latter's influence may have made itself felt in this work.

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