Chinese Girl
1952 painting by Vladimir Tretchikoff
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chinese Girl (often popularly known as The Green Lady) is a 1952 painting by Vladimir Tretchikoff. Mass-produced prints of the work in subsequent years were among the best-selling of the twentieth century.[1] The painting is of a Chinese young woman 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.
| Chinese Girl | |
|---|---|
| |
| Artist | Vladimir Tretchikoff |
| Year | 1952–1953 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
History
Though Tretchikoff maintained that the first version of this painting had been destroyed in Cape Town and he painted a new version during his 1953 tour of the US, researchers have found no proof of this claim.[1] The original sold for £982,050 at Bonhams auction house in London on 20 March 2013. It was purchased by British jeweller Laurence Graff.[2] Since 30 November the same year, it has been on public display at Delaire Graff Estate near Stellenbosch, South Africa.[3] Some scenes of Alfred Hitchcock's film Frenzy (1972) show portraits of the model Monika Sing-Lee (later Monika Pon-su-san, her married name) by Tretchikoff, including this one. The picture is also used as the front cover for the 1990s album Slap! by the British band Chumbawamba.
Model
Monika Sing-Lee was around twenty at the time, and had some European ancestry.[4] Also known by her married name, Pon-Su-San, she was encountered by Tretchikoff, at the suggestion of Russian dancer Masha Arsenyeva, while working in her uncle's launderette in Cape Town, South Africa.[4] Pon-Su-San died in Johannesburg on 14 June 2017.