Tamara de Lempicka was born Maria Gorska in Warsaw, Poland, in 1898. Lempicka was introduced to art at the age of 12, when her mother paid a famous painter to paint her daughter's portrait. To prove herself right, she made Adrienne, her younger sister, sit for a portrait as she tried painting for the first time. De Lempicka was so pleased with her work that she soon began her life-long love affair with art.