Sunday 5 June 2011

The Chinese Girl...................................................... aka The Green Lady

The Chinese Girl (often popularly known as The Green Lady) is a 1950 painting by the Russian artist Vladimir Tretchikoff (1913-2006).
 It became one of the world's most popular paintings when made into prints in the 1960s and 1970s, and is one of the world's best-selling art prints.
 The painting is of a Chinese girl and is best known for the unusual skin tone used for her face - a blue-green colour, which gives the painting its popular name...
"The Green Lady".
 It is a image I have known all my life.
I was surprised to learn from my mother recently that she had a magazine cutting with Tretchikoffs autograph on it that my father had procured on meeting the artist in London in the 1960's.

The Lost Orchid
This item is kept behind a lovely little oil painting "The Lost Orchid" a copy of one of his paintings she has... another image I have known all my life. 
It is folded up and kept behind the picture within the frame.
If she hadn't told me the tale it would probably have remained undiscovered.
The model who posed for this iconic painting has recently appeared in the media and is from South Africa and not as previously reported from San Francisco.
Tretchikoff passed away in South Africa aged 92 in 2006.
I was born in South Africa in 1956.
I have added more of Tretchikoffs artwork for you to critique.

7 comments:

jeanlivingsimple said...

Andrew, I have never heard of this artist or seen any of these wonderful paintings. The Lost Orchid is my favorite.

I hope the picture with the signed article has been framed with acid-free backing. Otherwise it could be severely damaged over time.

TexWisGirl said...

i'm not familiar with him either. i can see why the green lady was so popular. she's rather enigmatic - like the mona lisa...

Hilke Breder said...

I too have never heard of this artist. I can see why his pretty paintings have had such a worldwide appeal. Interesting post.

Unknown said...

Gorgeous paintings! Love them all. Coincidently both of us are in a oriental mood, I posted a Baby Krishna, not green but blue, today. :-)

Unknown said...

Another interesting post!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

conrad bo said...

Thank you for the post. Vladimir Tretchikoff was unfortunate as all the art museum curators in South Africa made a pact never to exhibit his work in any South African art museum. This was unfortunately the state of mind of the pro apartheid curators, because Vladimir Tretchikoff was born in Russia. Luckily everybody came to their senses, and his work is currently on show at the South African National Art Museum in Russia.
Conrad Bo
The Superstroke Art Movement.

Boris Gorelik said...

Hi, Andrew! If you're interested in Tretchikoff, you might like to visit my blog about his art: http://tretchikoff-central.blogspot.com/