When Vladimir Tretchikoff’s Chinese Girl (1952) sold at Bonhams in London in 2013 for £982,050, it was more than a sale - it was vindication. Long mocked by critics as “The Green Lady” of mass-market taste, the painting’s seven-figure price forced the art world to reckon with what the public had always known: Tretchikoff mattered. His prints hung above fireplaces and in suburban lounges from Cape Town to London, becoming icons of ordinary beauty. Suddenly, the critics’ disdain looked like shortsightedness.
Fast-forward a dozen years, and history repeated itself - with greater drama. In May 2025, Lady from the Orient (1955) smashed records at Strauss & Co in Johannesburg, fetching R31,110,000 (US$1.7m). The auction room buzzed as bids soared past expectations. This was no mere painting; it was theatre, glamour, and market timing all rolled into one. For our team, who has kept Tretchikoff’s legacy alive through prints and reproductions, it was both amusing and exhilarating. The secondary market was making fortunes, but the real story was that the world was finally ready to embrace what Tretchikoff always knew: art and popularity are not opposites, but partners.
Tretchikoff would have approved. He loved spectacle, and he loved profit. His oft-repeated line - “I am laughing all the way to the bank” - still rings true today, even if it is others cashing in on the momentum of his name. The irony isn’t lost on us, but nor is the joy. Because beyond the headlines and hammer prices lies the real thrill: the chance to see rare works that have almost never been shown.
A Rare Gathering
Strauss & Co’s upcoming Modern and Contemporary Art Evening Sale (16 September 2025) offers something extraordinary: not just one painting, but a suite of major works spanning decades of Tretchikoff’s career. For collectors, it’s an opportunity to buy. For the rest of us, it’s a chance to witness the breadth of an artist who was far more experimental, theatrical, and restless than his critics ever admitted.
Malay Girl (1951)
According to curator Andrew Lamprecht, this portrait may be the very first time Tretchikoff deployed the green and blue skin tones that became his signature. It’s the rehearsal for Chinese Girl, the prototype for a look that would captivate millions.
Glowing (1975)
A rare nature piece, it shows blackened tree stumps resisting a raging forest fire. Part survival drama, part allegory, it reveals a Tretchikoff fascinated by resilience and destruction - and seldom seen at auction.
Masai
A Kenyan warrior painted from below, monumental and dignified, lit with turquoise against pink. This is Tretchikoff the dramatist, mixing archetype with intimacy, grandeur with accessibility.
Self-Portrait with Muse (1948)
Painted soon after his arrival in South Africa, it shows the artist at work under the watchful eye of a rainbow-haired muse. It is both playful and earnest: a painter mythologising his own inspiration.
Bleeding Lily and Poinsettia (1949)
Tretchikoff’s flowers were never mere decoration. These botanical works treat plants as symbols of fragility, cruelty, and beauty - living beings in dialogue with human fate.
Profit, Spectacle, and Legacy
Let’s not pretend this sale isn’t about money. Auction houses are masters of timing, and they know how to ride the wave of a record-breaking headline. The secondary market is reaping the rewards of Tretchikoff’s soaring reputation.
But perhaps this is truest to the spirit of the man himself. Tretchikoff blurred art and commerce with a grin. He sold prints by the thousands and still charged handsomely for originals. He understood timing, drama, and the theatre of desire. That his afterlife now fuels dramatic auctions is less a betrayal than a continuation of his grand performance.
For all the talk of millions, the real gift is that these works are stepping into the public eye. Malay Girl, the quiet precursor to a global icon. Glowing, an elemental cry of survival. Masai, heroic and sculptural. A self-portrait with inspiration personified. These paintings remind us that Tretchikoff was not just the artist of “cheap sensation,” but a restless innovator who experimented with colour, identity, and allegory.
From Chinese Girl to Lady from the Orient, and now to this gathering of rare works, Tretchikoff’s story is one of return after return - each time bigger, bolder, and more lucrative. The critics may still sneer, but the market, and the public, have already delivered their verdict.
This is not just an auction. It is a spectacle. A reminder that beauty, drama, and even kitsch have their own kind of power. And above it all, Tretchikoff, ever the showman, would be laughing - delighted that, once again, timing and theatre are on his side.