In 1922, Lempicka, together with her husband Tadeusz, and their daughter Kizette, lived at 1 Place Wagram. It is here that her cousin, Constantin Stifter, took photographs showing her first paintings.

Constantin Stifter (or "Kostia" Stifter) took in Lempicka and her sister Adrienne (Ada) when they arrived in Paris in 1919. Lempicka did a very handsome portrait of him in 1924. Around then as well, Stifter did a series of photos in Lempicka's studio at place Wagram, unwittingly recording for posterity certain paintings that have since disappeared.

Starting in 1922, Lempicka participated in various Parisian "salons" - in particular, the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Tuileries, both of which attracted large crowds and received a great deal of press coverage at the time. For her first public appearances, Lempicka participated using the masculine form of her family name: thus, the catalogs for these shows list "Lempitzky", the name she also used to sign her paintings at the time, instead of the Polish feminization of her name, "Lempitzka". Her style evolved very rapidly during these years, from the classic facture and heavy brushwork of her beginnings to a smoother technique, and to lighter colors, which she deliberately restricted for the sake of harmony. Still attracted by Expressionism, she continued to prefer models with gnarled, muscular bodies as well as, occasionally, extremely virile female figures in strong contrast to the dreamy young women she portrayed in parallel. She was gradually developing a personal style, as can be seen in works such as "Her Sadness" (B.30), or "Woman with the Black Dress" (B.31). André Lhote's well-advised suggestions were bearing their fruit.