Her Homelife is Stormy

In the Tamara de Lempicka exhibit at the de Young there’s a wall with a timeline of her life. The entry for 1923 reads:

Her homelife is stormy; Tadeusz grows intolerant of his wife’s affairs, cocaine use, late nights spent at clubs followed by valerian-induced sleep, and long work sessions listening to Richard Wagner at full volume.

A few years later they were divorced.

I prefer to interpret this as if he could have put up with the affairs, the coke, the clubbing and valerian, but the Wagner was just a bridge too far.

  • Portrait de Mrs. Bush, Tamara de Lempicka
  • Young Woman in Green, Tamara de Lempicka

As someone who went to two performances of Tristan und Isolde this season, I’m not sure I concur with his assessment.