A Cartesian transmitter and a method of linearizing a Cartesian transmitter. In one embodiment, the transmitter includes: (1) a transmit chain configured to receive an input signal having in-phase and quadrature components and having a predistorter configured to employ at least one compensation lookup table to carry out in-phase and quadrature compensation predistortion with respect to the input signal, a combiner configured to combine outputs of the predistorter and a nonlinear element configured to process an output of the combiner, (2) a receiver coupled to the transmit chain and (3) predistortion compensation circuitry associated with the receiver and configured to update the at least one compensation lookup table based on the input signal and a signal from the receiver.