Mabel Bonney (Syracuse, New York State, 1894 - Paris, 1978) was American by birth. Upon her arrival in Paris in 1919, she adopted the name Thérèse and began a career in journalism. In 1921, she received a "decoration for services rendered to education within the framework of university-level exchanges between France and the United States." In 1924, she began doing photographs of artists, writers, and actors. Through her friendship with the fashion designer Madeleine Vionnet, she also became interested in the world of fashion. Later, she would devote herself to reportages on social conditions.

Nana de Herrera, a Spanish dancer, was Baron Kuffner's girlfriend. The Baron, in turn, was an enthusiastic collector of Lempicka's paintings, so it was of course the latter whom he commissioned to do a portrait of Nana. The portrait was so successful it made the arts enthusiast realize that, in the last analysis, he preferred the scent of turpentine to the clicking of castanets.
This lovely portrait remained in the hands of Lempicka's unfortunate rival, who sold it in 1970.

These were the years of Lempicka's greatest success. The museum of Nantes acquired her "Kizette in Pink" (B.81), and a number of rich collectors commissioned portraits - their own, of course, but also that of a wife and daughter for one, or of a mistress, for the other. At the peak of her talent, Lempicka was able to make the most of her feminine models, enhancing their charms with signs of the new spirit of the times. She thus imbued them with elegance and supreme nonchalance, sensuality and throbbing vitality. The portraits - and even the still lifes - belonging to this period convey contagious optimism in a triumphantly youthful and modernist vein. Success lent Lempicka wings, encouraging her to work and exhibit tirelessly. By now, she had found a certain signature style: a highly original, and effective, synthesis of Mannerism and toned down Neo-Cubism. This style was so well matched to the era that, in retrospect, it can be termed as emblematic of it.