Never had an artist been so preoccupied with her own image as Lempicka: she herself did many self-portraits, and, more especially, spent hours to sitting for photographers, where she would take on the attitude of a professional model. Her long stay in Hollywood, and all her efforts to penetrate the movie world, suggest that she longed to be in the "spotlight". Her "screen test" - with the newsreel producers Pathé in 1932 - shows a supremely self-assured image of her coming down the staircase of her rue Méchain studio, flourishing a seemingly endless cigarette-holder.

De Lempicka fell into a lengthy spell of depression. During a trip to Tuscany she decided to retire to a convent, engaging the Mother Superior in long discussions. She did not put her plan into action, but painted a tragic portrait of the nun. She wrote sorrowful letters to her faithful confident, Gino Puglisi, a handsome Italian airman.