# 2 Tamara de Lempicka "Calla Lilies"

Lempika's still life is broadly stated to have been painted in 1941 although some art historians would date the style of this painting to her creations spanning 1930s.  There are so many other breath-taking portraits that I could have chosen - however I fixed upon this painting as it calls upon the audience to be a detective unravelling the mysteries of her inner feelings.  I feel instinctively that there are coded messages to be dicyphered and perhaps a deeper mystery within as to who this painting might have originally spoken to.

There is mood, texture technical prowess is the use of light colour tone, richness of style.  The main subject are the arum Lilys. The arum lily is associated with death sexual desire and sanctity. In Greek mythology the arum lily is said to have grow from the spilled breast milk of the goddess Hera.  Apparently Hera woke up shocked to find the spawn of Zeus, Hercules suckling from her nipple when she detached him from her breast her milk spurted and formed the Milky Way.  The drops that fell to earth grew into arum lillies.

The lilies themselves are dipicted from all angles, perhaps they are as just as posed as the human figures in her paintings.  If you look deep into the flowers especially at the ones in the front and the base of the stems in water there are signs of aging, in my view.  Some of the foliage looks yellowing towards the edges of a painting. Why pick such glorious flowers and then paint them when they are going into decline, slipping into decay? If the flowers were symbolic to Lempicka of love and the sanctity of marriage in all it's forms, then she might be reflecting upon her own sadness.  Showing us that she is mindful that something is on the way out. 

We can all draw on our inner Sherlock Holmes and decide what this painting means.....and embark on a sleuth's narrative.....who was the present for? If It came with the flowers then why did it remain unwrapped until the flowers were turning.  Were the flowers given as an apology? was the present intended for someone who never showed up? All these mysteries and shadows perhaps of sadness and disappointment can speak to us as they may have touched all of our lives and loves. The tokens displayed are clues to a loving relationship of some sort - but what and who are the players?  This is to my mind a moving painting filled with theatre and emotional depth.