The Last Nude by Ellis Avery is one of those novels you can lose yourself in. Paris. The 1920’s. An artist and her muse. History. Romance. Love.
Rafaela is a stunning beauty, but lacking in life experience. At 17 she finds herself in Paris and is approached by Tamara de Lempicka, an artist who wants Rafaela to pose for her. Rafaela, on the downslide to prostitution, agrees. Over the next few months, the two women engage in a love affair that leads to one of de Lempicka’s most famous paintings, Beautiful Rafaela.
Rafaela is also plunged into the art world and begins to find her own place in the world designing and sewing dresses for Tamara and for Tamara’s wealthy friends and clients.
With interwar Paris as a looming backdrop, the love affair between the two women falls apart. Tamara, as a Pole born in Warsaw, becomes more concerned for her safety and for her paintings than she does about Rafaela. Tamara also finds ambition driving her instead of just simply a love of art as two wealthy men fight over owning the Rafaela paintings.
The last painting Tamara de Lempicka was working on at the time of her death was a copy of Beautiful Rafaela.
Ellis Avery, the author of The Last Nude, decided to write this “hair-raising sexy” story after being shocked that this lesbian love affair was mentioned on the plaque next to Beautiful Rafaela at the Royal Academy in London art show. The details of the affair are imagined in the novel, but Rafaela and Tamara de Lempicka are real people who had a real love affair in 1927.
Most interestingly, de Lempicka painted Rafaela with her eyes closed in 1927, but open in the copy of the painting she made in 1980 from memory.
The Last Nude is a novel that will awaken the desire of the reader just as Rafaela’s desire is awakened. Your heart will break with Tamara’s as she recalls the love she had for Rafaela at the end of her life. This novel will take you on a journey of a love that in reality last six months, but in memory lasted a lifetime.
Riverhead Books provided a review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
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Wow, sound like a great book. Wonderful review.
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