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's post-war style was characterised by a somewhat uncertain definition. Eager to return to Europe, in January she visited Italy and revisited the museums, returning with numerous sketches and some copies. Willy Maywald photographed her in her Paris studio in the Rue Méchain, in a décor worthy of Jean Cocteau.

Wilhelm (Willy) Maywald was born in Kleve (Germany) in 1907; he died in Paris in 1985. Having enrolled in the Fine Arts School of Berlin, he began working as an assistant to movie producers for various studios, which awakened an interest in photography. In 1931, he arrived in Paris, where he became assistant to Harry Meerson. He mounted several exhibitions, and then settled in Switzerland for the duration of the war. Returning to Paris in 1946, he became staff photographer for Christian Dior. In 1949, his portraits of artists went on display at the Maeght Gallery.