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The Last Nude

3.62 of 5 stars 3.62 · rating details · 3,664 ratings · 209 reviews

A stunning story of love, sexual obsession, treachery, and tragedy, about an artist and her most famous muse in Paris between the World Wars.

Paris, 1927. In the heady years before the crash, financiers drape their mistresses in Chanel, while expatriates flock to the avant-garde bookshop Shakespeare and Company. One day in July, a young American named Rafaela Fano gets into...more

Hardcover, 320 pages

Published January 5th 2012 by Riverhead

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Jul 23, 2012 Janellyn51 rated it 3 of 5 stars

I don't know...I just didn't like it all that much. I paint myself, and really I just copy stuff that I like and I'm pretty good at it. I've done several Lempika's, Saint Morritz, and Spring, another one or two. I love Lempika's work, I just don't like her. I read the biography Kizette wrote about her years ago, so I already knew a fair amount about her. It's hard to know what's real and what's not in this book. I would be interested in knowing about Raphaela, but I'd like to know what's real an...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Janice rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012, historical-fiction, world-tour-challenge

I gave myself a personal challenge this year and that was to read a new release each month. This was my first read in the challenge.

I didn't know anything about the Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka before reading this book. One of the things I like about historical fiction is that it gives me the opportunity to learn about historical people and events.

This book tells the story of the relationship between Tamara de Lempinski and her model, Rafaela Fano. The first part of the book is narrated...more

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Dec 11, 2011 Holly Weiss rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Holly by: Karen Dugas

Shelves: 2012-release, to-review

When is a muse an inspiration and when is she a plaything? The distinction is hazy in Ellis Avery’s The Last Nude.

1927 Paris, Rafaela only wants a hundred francs to buy a black dress so she can take over her flat mate’s department store job. In danger of falling into prostitution, she meets Tamara De Lempicka, painter of exotic, sexy Art Deco, and poses for several paintings.

Although outside the parameters of what I usually read, this period piece is well written and sensual. The writer skillful...more

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Sep 04, 2012 Kristen Hovet rated it 5 of 5 stars

I haven't given five stars to a book in a long time, so that's something!

This was such a beautiful book to read. I loved the subtle, smooth writing style, the descriptions of everyday objects and happenings, the way the characters' eyes opened in different ways...I loved all of it.

I even loved the switch of perspective at the end -- which, judging from many reviews, most people did not like or were uncomfortable with -- where we enter the mind of the person in the story whom we most come to re...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Jean V. Naggar Literary rated it 5 of 5 stars

“An evocative, heart-cutting work that imagines the relationship between artist and model...Avery does a lot for us here, creating two stunning characters—the earthy, heartfelt Rafaela and the conniving de Lempicka—then shows us both the heat of their relationship and the very act of creating art. In the bargain, we get Paris itself, particularly demimonde and artistic, boiling over with possibility. VERDICT: Absorbing, affecting, and agitating...this work is highly recommended.” --Library Journ...more “An evocative, heart-cutting work that imagines the relationship between artist and model...Avery does a lot for us here, creating two stunning characters—the earthy, heartfelt Rafaela and the conniving de Lempicka—then shows us both the heat of their relationship and the very act of creating art. In the bargain, we get Paris itself, particularly demimonde and artistic, boiling over with possibility. VERDICT: Absorbing, affecting, and agitating...this work is highly recommended.” --Library Journal, starred review, January 2012 book pick, and named one of their top 25 titles for 2012

“A taut, elegant novel...[Avery's] prose sings.” --More Magazine

“What's not to love about Ellis Avery's romantic novel, The Last Nude?...We've been loving this tough-but-vulnerable heroine.” --O Magazine

Tamara de Lempicka’s iconic Jazz Age paintings...now see glittering, luminescent life in Avery’s novel, a riveting lesbian love story of heart-stopping passion, rapture, and stunning duplicity...Subtle and seductive ...Avery’s breathtaking shimmer of first love and its aftermath will turn heads. ” --Booklist, starred review

“A dark, sexy romp.” --Kirkus

“A fascinating look at love, art and betrayal. Highly recommended.” --AfterEllen.com

“The strength of Avery's novel lies in her depiction of a driven and accomplished artist and an impressionable waif who finds that her beauty no longer belongs to her.” --Publishers Weekly

“As erotic and powerful as the paintings that inspired it, Ellis Avery's artist-muse love story is as much about money, class, and betrayal.” --Emma Donoghue, author of Room

“The Last Nude is a remarkable novel: at once a seductive evocation of Lost Generation Paris, a faithful literary rendering of Tamara de Lempicka's idiosyncratic and groundbreaking art, and a vibrant, intelligent, moving story in its own right. It's also smoking hot.” --Emily Barton, author of Brookland

"A sly, sleekly written stereograph of art, desire, and desperation in Paris in the '20s, The Last Nude brings Rafaela to electric life, much as Tamara de Lempicka did when she painted her." --Alexander Chee, author of Edinburgh

“The Last Nude carries us through one of the most fascinating and turbulent periods in modern art, and into the minds and bodies of two of art history's most riveting heroines. With prose and imagery that are both lyrical and unabashedly sensual, Avery breathes life and depth into famed artist's muse Rafaela, tracing her rocky but thrilling path from lost girl to Lost Generation icon, and laying bare acts of love, desire and betrayal with all the assuredness of a master artist herself.” --Jennifer Epstein, author of The Painter from Shanghai

"Ellis Avery transports the reader on a fast-paced magic carpet ride to Paris between the World Wars, a time when artists, patrons, and models fused the business of sex and art, with deeply painful results." --Aaron Hamburger, author of Faith for Beginnners(less)

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May 01, 2012 Jean Roberta rated it 4 of 5 stars

Paris in the 1920s was a glittering refuge for expatriate artists, hedonists, the sexually unconventional, exiles and runaways of all sorts. Its soundtrack was le jazz hot. The author of this novel, who teaches fiction-writing at Columbia University in New York, has brought this milieu back to life in words that seem as carefully chosen as a palette of colours.

The “last nude” of the title is a copy of one of the six paintings of “beautiful Rafaela” made in the 1920s by an actual painter, Tamara...more

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May 01, 2012 Olga rated it 4 of 5 stars

The novel “The Last Nude” by Ellis Avery caught my attention in the book store when I was about to leave the store without buying anything. It just talked to me. I think I bought it without actually reading what the book was about...when I did, I couldn't be happier as I love stories based on the lives of the artists.

The story of Rafaela and Tamara de Lempicka is not one of a kind, but what makes it special and so heartbreaking it’s the way it was told. Throughout the book we see the story th...more

The novel “The Last Nude” by Ellis Avery caught my attention in the book store when I was about to leave the store without buying anything. It just talked to me. I think I bought it without actually reading what the book was about...when I did, I couldn't be happier as I love stories based on the lives of the artists.

The story of Rafaela and Tamara de Lempicka is not one of a kind, but what makes it special and so heartbreaking it’s the way it was told. Throughout the book we see the story through Rafaela’s eyes – her impressions, her emotions, feelings, her states of mind; her relationship with Lempicka, the way Tamara was or rather what she let others see of her; even what Paris could become for the likes of Rafaela and her friend Gin. In all its glamour and grandeur, for some it still represented something that was quite unattainable.

Rafaela’s attraction to this mysterious woman in green Bugatti has started from the first glance at her (however subconsciously) and then when in the car while noticing every detail of her outfit; the way her eyes moved, even what her pen was made of – nothing has escaped Rafaela’s attention. This is what happens when you meet somebody and suddenly you want to know everything about this person, the tiniest detail matters.

Without having even talked properly, without even knowing who that woman was, Rafaela was fast on her way to become her slave. Tamara’s charm was uncanny. Rafaela was doomed right from the very start of their acquaintance, while driving in Tamara’s car, on her way to “perdition”; while still calculating and plotting how she could easily get away if things got out of the way. What she didn’t know was that she’d welcome everything that Lempicka, with her insouciance and at the same moment deep eagerness, would offer to Rafaela and later so ruthlessly deprive her of.

The way Rafaela’s story got cut short was disappointing. But then, on the other hand, it was either way...I’m sure most of the readers would rather know the end of Lempicka’s story than Rafaela’s. For Rafaela, even though being narrator of the story, failed to impress, just like she failed to impress Lempicka (not as a model and a lover but as a personality). There was something lacking in her. To me she was not interesting enough; her passion for Lempicka was described by the means of an exquisite language, which author used to impart Rafaela’s overwhelming love for the artist. Maybe because of that very language, full of beautiful and unique words, it was so hard to relate those feelings to Rafaela, the words just didn’t sound authentic enough coming from this simple minded girl...it just didn’t seem to be her way to express herself. Said that, Rafaela did make you believe in her deep devotion for Lempicka, as well as the pain that she was in when standing by the Seine, desperate and lonely. These were the moments when she was at her most real, her natural self – in her sadness and vulnerability; naivety.

The book was an enjoyable read because of the various aspects. 20s being my favorite decade, it got me immersed into the whole ambiance and the attitudes of the people that appeared in the novel – some of them real historical personalities, some fictional yet so skillfully put together, you couldn’t tell real thing from the imagined. Sometimes, though, the scenes and dialogues felt forced and a bit contrived, but that’s minor.

I loved the story of Sylvia Beach and Adrianne. It was romantic for its little knowing about them, just that they spent many years together, still caring and attentive to one another, with this endearing emotional air about them. Women who wanted to make the difference, determined and powerful in their convictions, loyal to each other and their friends.

And Tamara de Lempicka. Where does she stand as a heroine of this novel? It doesn’t matter how she was and what she did with her life as a simple mortal; who she loved, hated; whom she hurt and who got the most of her. Her genius exempted her from everything that appeared common, trivial, obvious...or just plain human. This is how it is: her talent, her passion, her ambition, her power to overpower whoever and whatever; until her late years, when sick and hardly being able to paint, she still ruled the roost, she still could intimidate and make one doubt his every word...

She never aspired to be a good human being – it was the least of her concerns. She wanted to be the best artist she possibly could. Even if it meant destroying other people’s lives, even if it meant sacrificing her own life; it was worth it.
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Feb 26, 2012 Cheryl rated it 5 of 5 stars

This fictionalized book details some of 1930's Art Deco artist Tamara de Lempicka's life in Paris. It was very interesting to me to read about a famous artist. This woman was stunningly ruthless in her way to sell her art and make money. She used everyone around her in her pursuit of fame and money, and took advantage of both men and women. She threw decadent parties with many other famous artists,writers, and people in that type of creative world just to promote her art and sell paintings.She b...more

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Feb 24, 2012 Racine rated it 4 of 5 stars

A fascinating book about an intriguing premise – the love affair between Tamara de Lempicka and her model. Tamara de Lempicka was a painter most famous in the twenties where her severe, cubist work caught the imagination of the French with its Art Deco allure. Lempicka painted a mysterious woman named Rafaela and the back story that the writer invents for this muse is interesting, but lacks plausibility. Rafaela is a girl from New York City being sent to Italy for an arranged marriage. She makes...more

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Feb 24, 2012 Anne Broyles rated it 4 of 5 stars

I confess that prior to this novel, I had not heard of the Polish art deco artist, Tamta de Lempicka. I do know about and enjoy details of the Lost Generation (“Midnight in Paris” acquainted many people with some of these characters) in Paris. Avery’s novel tells some of the painter’s story, letting us meet Tamara through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Rafaela Fano, who became muse and model for de Lempicka.

I went back and forth between de Lempicka’s paintings online and the book that imagined h...more

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Feb 22, 2012 Noëlibrarian rated it 4 of 5 stars

At 16, Italian- American Rafaela is a ravishing beauty – and her stepfather wants her married as soon as possible. Rafaela resists the awful plan to marry her off to a cousin in Sicily, and when her much-hated step-grandmother nearly dies on the steamship crossing to Europe, Rafaela makes her escape. Having no money, she exchanges sex for a ticket to Paris. The year is 1927 and Paris is full of artists and writers – there is no shortage of wealthy men to use for a while – but then Rafaela meets...more

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Feb 16, 2012 Scott Adelson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Arriving in Paris toward the end of the 1920s, 17-year-old Rafaela Fano is wide-eyed and willing to sacrifice her innocence to engage and survive a new life abroad. An escapee from her family’s plans, she has penchant for fashion and genius for getting by any way she can. Her practical efforts soon find her modeling for the great Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempika. They quickly become lovers and their relationship takes its place in local bohemian society, a world fast becoming jaded as its char...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Martha Bryce rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: i-love-the-cover

I loved this book but I am a francophile. Set in 1927, it is a beautiful look at the Jazz era in Paris and the lives of two women bound to each other forever.Rafaela Fano is very young Italian American woman, escaping from an arranged marriage to an Italian she has never met. On the trip to Italy, she jumps ship and heads to Paris. Rafaela doesn't know a word of French but has seen a creation by Coco Chanel and wants to be a part of that world. Out of work, down on her luck and likely to lose t...more I loved this book but I am a francophile. Set in 1927, it is a beautiful look at the Jazz era in Paris and the lives of two women bound to each other forever.Rafaela Fano is very young Italian American woman, escaping from an arranged marriage to an Italian she has never met. On the trip to Italy, she jumps ship and heads to Paris. Rafaela doesn't know a word of French but has seen a creation by Coco Chanel and wants to be a part of that world. Out of work, down on her luck and likely to lose the apartment she shares with a friend, Rafaela is looking for a way to earn 100 francs for a uniform dress so that she can take over her Friend's job selling gloves to elite women. On that fateful day, she meets Anson, an American war hero expatriate who will become the best friend of her life and Tamara de Lempicka, a displaced Russian countess who is a professional artist. de Lempicka offers Rafaela $100 francs to pose for her and both of their worlds change.
The name of the real woman who posed for de Lempicka is unknown but in The Last Nude, it is Rafaela a voluptuous, dark, sensual, and 17 year old who becomes de Lempicka's muse. The blending of fact and fiction in this book is quite cleverly and seamlessly crafted. The two women become lovers and de Lempicka, though infatuated with Rafaela does not love her as deeply and truly as she is loved by Rafaela.
Enjoy a stroll through the parties, the alcohol and cocaine fueled life, the gorgeous clothes, costumes and revelry of the international elite in Paris, the unfolding of love affairs, and the inevitable disillusionment of Rafaela.
The ending is weak, set at the end of de Lempicka's life but illustrating the true depth of emotions she felt for her muse and her regrets and justification of the choices that she made to marry for money and security while betraying her young, naive muse. If the end of the book had been as strong as the beginning, it would have easily merited 5+ stars, but it seemed to fall apart about the same time the relationship between Rafaela and Tamara de Lempicka did.(less)

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Jan 08, 2012 christa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Historical fiction is, essentially, literary fan fiction. It’s the literary part that gives it more cred than “Friday Night Lights” superfans hanging out on a bulletin board dreamily considering what if Julie Taylor came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, her lips flushed and red, her skin dewy, and found Tim Riggins, primed, and sweating Red Stripe from his pores into her duvet. But at it’s core it is still fan fiction, with a high percentage of words spelled correctly and void of emoticon...more Historical fiction is, essentially, literary fan fiction. It’s the literary part that gives it more cred than “Friday Night Lights” superfans hanging out on a bulletin board dreamily considering what if Julie Taylor came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, her lips flushed and red, her skin dewy, and found Tim Riggins, primed, and sweating Red Stripe from his pores into her duvet. But at it’s core it is still fan fiction, with a high percentage of words spelled correctly and void of emoticons and poorly-written sex scenes.

With “The Last Nude,” Ellis Avery considers the subject of 1920s art deco artist Tamara De Lempicka’s six-painting Rafaela series. The art deco portraits star a heavy-lidded woman with soft rounds of flesh, all red scarves and lipsticks and shading. She was one of many women De Lempicka painted and, of course, with whom the artist got all deep sighs and panty. The novel is about their blip of a relationship set in the edgy, ex-pat heavy, Jazz Era in Paris and features cameos from some the eras major players including Violette Morris, a female boxer turned Nazi informer, and Sylvia Beach of Shakespeare & Company, publishers of “Ulysses.”

Rafaela is an American girl who is en route to Italy for an arranged marriage when she jumps ship with a creeper to forge a life for herself in Paris instead. She is intrigued by a Coco Chanel dress she saw once and resorts to doling out sexual favors in exchange for a new life. She goes a bit wild-child, dancing on tables and diddling married men with her roommate Gin. De Lempicka finds the girl in a seedy prostitute hangout. Rafaela is looking for a friend; De Lempicka is looking for a model. At first Rafaela is a substitute for a similarly shaped model, a commission who has left town. But De Lempicka moves on to Rafaela as a subject and the work knocks the socks off art patrons.

The story, told mostly from Rafaela’s perspective, is gripping-ish. Lots of lounging and grape eating, followed by messing up the sheets. After spending sexual energy as almost a job or a way of staying afloat, Rafaela finds someone she enjoys screwing and falls hard for the artist, 10 years her senior. Unfortunately, artists. De Lempicka might be walking the walk of love, but she is looking out for numero uno and pitting patron versus patron, with Rafaela as a pawn. Unfortunately, the last fourth of the book shifts voices in a way that feels like staying a bit too long at the party. The now aged artist considers her past and has her say on what it all meant.

What worked in Woody Allen’s movie “Midnight in Paris” -- monologues by Hemingway, glimpses of Salvidor Dali -- comes across as hokey and distracting. Rafaela’s new found friend, and eventual savior, is a character named Anson. He’s a sportswriter turned go-fer for a private investigator. He is shades of Hemingway. He is dissing F. Scott Fitzgerald and fending off Rafaela’s advances with a vague medical situation caused in the war. A wife and a girlfriend. It’s all kind of blerg. Paula McLain did it better with her account of Hadley Richardson in the novel “The Paris Wife.”

On the other hand, “The Last Nude” is a good way to dig into the work of De Lempicka and inspires the same artistic curiosity as Steve Martin’s novel “An Object of Beauty.” That alone makes this a worthwhile read. (less)

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Dec 18, 2011 Laurie rated it 5 of 5 stars

This lovely piece of historical fiction- fictionalized biography?- is based on the artist Tamara de Lempicka and one of her models, Rafaela Fano. Lempicka is considered an Art Deco painter, strongly influenced by Cubism but with her own unique take on it, creating vivid canvases that seemed to have life of their own. Fano posed for some of her most famous works.

The first part of the book, in 1927, is told from Fano’s point of view; only in her mid-teens when she arrives in Paris, having escaped...more

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Nov 28, 2011 Cameling rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting art history novel around Polish born artist Tamara de Lempicka in the roaring 1920s in Paris. With her sharp clean lines and vibrant colors, de Lempicka became one of the most sought after portrait artist of her time.

Rafaela, a young girl is hired by de Lempicka to model for a series of nude paintings, quickly becomes attracted to and infatuated by this bohemian artist, not realizing in her innocence how she was being manipulated. As de Lempicka's fame soars following an exhibition...more

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Mar 03, 2012 Bonnie Brody rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Last Nude by Ellis Avery is a fascinating book about the painter Tamara de Lempicka. Taking place primarily in Paris during 1927, Tamara picks up Rafaela Fano in her car and begins to use her as a model. Prior to modeling for Tamara, 17-year-old Rafaela was prostituting herself and living hand to mouth. A very sensuous and loving relationship develops. However, it does not pan out as Rafaela would hope. Tamara has reasons to want money and prestige, things that do not come with Rafaela. Rafa...more The Last Nude by Ellis Avery is a fascinating book about the painter Tamara de Lempicka. Taking place primarily in Paris during 1927, Tamara picks up Rafaela Fano in her car and begins to use her as a model. Prior to modeling for Tamara, 17-year-old Rafaela was prostituting herself and living hand to mouth. A very sensuous and loving relationship develops. However, it does not pan out as Rafaela would hope. Tamara has reasons to want money and prestige, things that do not come with Rafaela. Rafaela is the muse for Tamara's most famous painting, 'La Belle Rafaela'. In this novel, many famous artists are discussed - Romaine Brooks, Jean Cocteau, Gertrude Stein, Picasso, Tallulah Bankhead, James Joyce, Andre Gide, James Joyce, Sylvia Beach, and many more. Paris is bustling with artists and there is a very large homosexual population. This novel focuses on the lesbian relationships prominent at that time.

Most all of the book is written from the viewpoint of Rafaela who, at 17, has a voice that seems much too mature for her years. This aspect of the book requires an act of faith to be believed. Rafaela is madly and completely in love with Tamara. It is her wish to live with her forever. She is, herself, a talented dressmaker and has dreams of opening up a store to display her wares. She gets a start on designing with a friend of Tamara's.

There are a lot of betrayals and jealousies in the novel, along with vivid descriptions of the artistic process. Rafaela is a naive young woman but Tamara is a decade her senior with a daughter and an impending divorce under her belt. She has many plans and does not feel reciprocally about Rafaela.

The second part of the book, a very short piece, is written from Tamara's viewpoint when she is in her eighties. She discusses the relationship she had with Rafaela, what she could have done differently and how her life is now. She is dealing with old age and shaky hands so her painting is affected. However, she is having shows in Japan and the United States. She has no money worries as her husband was very wealthy and left her with a lot of money. She is verging on paranoia as she tries to decide who to leave her inheritance to and wondering who has betrayed her recently.

Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot. However, on some levels, it floundered. Without spoilers, I will say that there are often no good reasons for the things that Tamara or Rafaela do, their choices seem impulsive and the book can jump from topic to topic and read, at times, like a soap opera. I loved the historical aspect of the artistic venue in Paris. I've read the biography of Romaine Brooks by Meryl Secrest and highly recommend that. Books about Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas are ubiquitous. I suggest seeing Jean Cocteau's movies and reading some Joyce. That will put the reader in the mood for this very good novel.
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Nov 18, 2012 Bandit rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Last Nude aka La Belle Rafaela is arguably one of the most significant and memorable nude portraits of the last century. In this book the author imagines an affair between the muse and the artist. It's really a fascinating book, capturing the essence of the roaring twenties, the famous and infamous decade between the wars in a city made for love and art that serves as a background for this very plausibly invented love story. The book particularly succeeds in bringing to life De Lempicka as a...more

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Apr 02, 2012 Erin rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book was divided in to two parts..the first 80% was told from the viewpoint of Rafaela, a 17 year old runaway who has been prostituting herself to unattractive, wealthy men to get by in 1920's Paris. She meets female painter Tamara, who offers her money to pose nude. They begin a sexual relationship, which Rafaela believes is a love affair...however, she finds out that Tamara has been cruelly plotting behind her back to win the affections of a Baron and become his wife. They have a telling,...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Helen Albert rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Amazing portrait of the Art Deco artist, Tamara de Lempicka, famously known for her bohemian lifestyle and affairs with both men and women. The story centers around her relationship with her model, Rafaela, who sat for some of Lempicka's most famous nude paintings including the one shown on the cover of the book. I'm always wary of writers who are academics (Avery teaches writing at Columbia U). Their writing is often self-conscious. But Avery does not disappoint. Her writing is fresh, even star...more

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Nov 19, 2011 Sharyl rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-reads

Ellis Avery's novel The Last Nude is an imagined episode within the life of artist Tamara de Lempicka, centered around one of her most famous paintings, "La Bella Rafaela."

In this novel, Rafaela Fono spent her first sixteen years in the Bronx, New York, the daughter of Italian immigrants. Her natural father dies when she is young, her mother remarries, and has three sons with her second husband. Rafaela is a teenager in high school who is also charged with household chores, caring for her littl...more Ellis Avery's novel The Last Nude is an imagined episode within the life of artist Tamara de Lempicka, centered around one of her most famous paintings, "La Bella Rafaela."

In this novel, Rafaela Fono spent her first sixteen years in the Bronx, New York, the daughter of Italian immigrants. Her natural father dies when she is young, her mother remarries, and has three sons with her second husband. Rafaela is a teenager in high school who is also charged with household chores, caring for her little brothers, and learning her aunt and uncle's sewing trade, but when Rafaela's mother notices the way her second husband is looking at her daughter, it is suddenly time for Rafaela to get out of the picture.

So begins Rafaela's story. Accompanied by her crabby, cruel paternal grandmother, she is locked in a cabin on board a ship sailing back to Italy, where she is affianced to a nephew of her stepfather's. She doesn't get to finish high school, she doesn't want to get married at sixteen, and she barely speaks Italian. It is on one of the last nights of this voyage that Rafaela gets a chance to escape, to take control of her own life, and she seizes that opportunity, but it comes at a dangerous price.

Without spoiling too much of the story, Rafaela makes her way to Paris, where she begins to slide into prostitution, until a chance meeting with the artist Tamara De Lempicka changes her prospects. Still just seventeen, Rafaela falls in love with Tamara, and the two have an intense affair.

However, the two make good foils; Rafaela innocent and loyal, Tamara jaded and cynical. While the young Rafaela is introduced to the world of art, lavish parties, and a bohemian lifestyle, Tamara is not only painting, but using her coy charms on potential buyers to secure the best position she can for herself, while artfully keeping her young model in love and happy.

Eventually, the love affair comes to an end in a betrayal engineered by Tamara's greed and selfishness. Most of this story is narrated by Rafaela, and her pain is very real. The last few chapters are told from Tamara's point of view, when the reader gets a glimpse into the past life that has badly damaged this artist, molding her into the unlikable character of this novel. We also sympathize with her neglected daughter and all those who must put up with Tamara as she becomes an aging diva.

Ellis Avery paints a detailed 1920s Paris in this intriguing, engaging novel. Thank you for the freebie, I most certainly enjoyed it. (less)

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Apr 12, 2013 Jennifer rated it 2 of 5 stars

This was a book club selection that I ended up skimming through. While I found parts of it interesting, overall, it didn't "grab me"...I had a difficult time relating to either of the characters, and the story seemed choppy. However, Avery was very skilled at imagery, and the book had some gorgeous prose:

I felt like glass: looked at and looked through.
--
What did he see when he saw me? It was as if my body were a sign pinned to my own back, a sign I myself couldn't read.
--
In the furnace of her en...more

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Dec 01, 2012 Jori Richardson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Jori by: Early Reviewers

Shelves: books-owned, historical-fiction, sexuality, painters

In the golden age of 1920's Paris, wealth radiates off the streets. Gertrude Stein holds lavish salons, the Shakespeare & Co. bookshop hosts expatriates and aspiring novelists such as James Joyce, and painter Tamara de Lempicka prepares to create her greatest masterpieces.

It is this world that the reader, and our main character of Rafaela Fano is thrown into. Struggling and desperate, Rafaela - a young girl who has recently run away to Paris rather than marry against her will - reluctantly a...more

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Aug 07, 2012 Dustin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, library-borrowed, audio-book

In essence, it's a love story and a coming of age story. Told from the point of view of Raphaela, Tamara de Lempicka's relationship with the model of some of her most famous paintings comes to life. Capturing a snapshot of the Lost Generation living in Paris in the late 1920's, Rafaela provides a perspective on that realm of expatriates who called Paris home between the world wars. Told with that charm and beguiling innocence that a seventeen year old can display, the reader hears of Joyce's pro...more

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May 17, 2012 Jessica McReaderpants rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-fiction, lesbanism-eroticism-homos

This was a well written book, I love the stories of artists and their muses. This is no different. It follows the formula. Artist sees person, person poses for artist, there is much sex, then something happens that is a travesty and breaks a heart. (artists as we all know have no hearts) It was up the the author-ess to flesh out this tried and true story line and I think she did rather well. I liked it up until she switched voices and took up the artists side. Then it became disjointed and hard...more

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Dec 29, 2011 Jaylia3 rated it 3 of 5 stars

Set mainly in 1920's Paris, The Last Nude is based on real life Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka as seem through the eyes of Rafaela, a seventeen year old American girl just one step away from having to support herself through prostitution who became one of Tamara's models and lovers. The story is populated with famous art scene and jazz age personalities, like Sylvia Beach and Violette Morris, and there is a lot of name dropping of other notables who remain off stage, including Picasso, but...more

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Nov 15, 2011 Angela rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

Great read. I love historical fiction and this book didn't disappoint. I knew nothing about the painter before I started reading, and that's my one regret.

There's so much beautiful imagery of Paris. Throughout the book I always had an image in my head: Avery is no stranger to detail and she uses them well. Her writing style flows wonderfully and made the book easy to read. I never once reread a passage because I was confused, rather I did some rereading because I thought the writing was fantast...more

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Dec 14, 2011 David Lentz rated it 5 of 5 stars

I received an advance copy of this novel from the Amazon VINE Program for which I am a reviewer. The writing style of Ellis Avery is glorious beyond belief. It's as if a truly gifted writer sought and succeeded in conveying in the brush strokes of her words the experience of the master portrait painter with her canvas. The brush strokes of the syntax are inspired and lucious and rich with well-mixed colors. The intriguing storyline is masterfully crafted with a magnificent interplay of light and...more I received an advance copy of this novel from the Amazon VINE Program for which I am a reviewer. The writing style of Ellis Avery is glorious beyond belief. It's as if a truly gifted writer sought and succeeded in conveying in the brush strokes of her words the experience of the master portrait painter with her canvas. The brush strokes of the syntax are inspired and lucious and rich with well-mixed colors. The intriguing storyline is masterfully crafted with a magnificent interplay of light and darkness in the texture of the tale. It is elegantly sensual, smoldering, and yet most tastefully rendered. Major players of the Lost Generation in Paris appear or are named: Sylvia Beach of Shakespeare & Company, Cocteau, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein. Avery animates Sylvia Beach and brings her to life remarkably but much less so these charcoal sketches of famous artists and writers, which I had hoped she would render with more depth and daring. Rafaela is a young model and the central story line concerns the relationship between the model and her painter, Tamara de Lempicka. The main and lesser known characters literally and figuratively are roundly drawn with fascinating idiosyncracy. The connection between model and painter is portrayed realistically and the effect is powerful of their love affair and treacherous business relationship just as Paris was about to be torn apart by global strife. The writing is exquisitely crafted and every sentence is a beauty, a microcosm of the bigger picture -- a world in every word. As someone who reads literary novels avidly, and also writes them, I know a great book when I read one and this is a major work with a timeless quality which is both dreamy in the composition and vividly real with a clarity and craftsmanship uncommonly rare. Avery can defintely write and her commanding novel should prove to be one for the ages about a time before the war when art boldly sought to assert its humanity with new expression leaving the art and artists immortal. For as painful as true art proves to be as a harsh mistress, true art endures. If you are a serious reader of literary novels, then Avery's brilliant portrait work and moving, layered, story line will leave you breathless: this is a brilliant novel beckoning exotically to be read. Give in to the impulse and indulge youself in a great read.(less)

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Nov 24, 2011 Tara Chevrestt rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-release, librarything, historical-fiction, women-that-really-existed-fiction, france

A fascinating book. I was so intrigued by all of its characters and going ons, that I had to google the Lempicka's complete works and see the paintings mentioned in the novel for myself.

Tamara Lempicka was a famous artist who began her life as a Pole in Russia...later kicked out in the revolution. She honed her skills as a a painter in Paris and explored freely with her sexuality. Apparently, (in this book, anyway) any artistic woman in France in 1927 worth her salt was a Lesbian. The heroine a...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

I pre-ordered this novel and was eagerly anticipating it, and in most ways, I wasn't disappointed. The story of glamorous Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka and her model and muse Rafaela Fano is fiery and enticing. Avery does a wonderful job of conjuring Left Bank Paris in the 1920s, with its glittering parties, artistic richness, and flexible moral standards. But this thrilling environment is the gift that doesn't always keep giving. In particular, I felt that the novel's beginning and end we...more

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Quotes from The Last Nude

“I found another girl to pose for Myrto and then I didn't think about Rafaela much, not until a spring day years later. Or rather, I thought about her with an occasional, impersonal pang. Have you ever had a favorite cafe close? It was like that.” — 1 person liked it

“In the furnace of her enormous betrayal, the only sentences I could form felt like tiny flakes of snow. 'But I thought you didn't want him.” — 1 person liked it

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