Additional Images

Provenance:

Private Collection, Toronto, ON

Note:

Vladimir Grigorievich Tretchikoff was born in Russia in 1913. At the onset of the Russian Revolution in 1917, he fled the country with his parents to Harbin, China. Tretchikoff spent the early 1930s in Shanghai, where he found a job in advertising and contributed graphic artwork to newspapers and magazines. By 1935, he had settled in Singapore, where he continued his advertising career and produced illustrations for The Straits Times.

The Second World War was a tumultuous time for the artist with the invasion of Singapore by Japan in 1942. Tretchikoff was captured as a prisoner of war in Java, where his first muse, Leonora Moltema (Lenka), encouraged him to focus on his art career. When he settled in South Africa in 1946 to reunite with his wife and child, who had been lost during the war, he pursued his art career. Tretchikoff’s first dedicated exhibitions in 1948 in his new homeland were a success.

Tretchikoff was a very successful artist during his lifetime. His exhibitions at Harrods in the 1950s and 1960s were major milestones in his career, bringing his bold, colourful artworks to a global audience. Held in the iconic department store, these exhibitions showcased his famous paintings like The Green Lady and Chinese Girl. The shows were a commercial success, attracting large crowds and helping Tretchikoff gain widespread recognition. While exhibiting his work at a department store was not viewed favourably by art critics, the Harrods exhibitions played a key role in cementing his place as a popular, mass-market artist. His most famous portrait, Chinese Girl, sold at Bonhams in 2013 for close to $1,800,000 CAD.

The artist’s depictions of flowers began in Java during World War II, reflecting his concept of “Symbolic Realism,” a term used by Tretchikoff to describe his style. The universal symbolism of flowers helped his compositions gain widespread success. In Europe, mostly after the Renaissance, exotic flowers symbolized wealth and power, with each flower carrying a specific meaning. Northern European art’s still lifes developed a distinctive floral language based on these meanings. A similar tradition exists in Asia, where flowers like chrysanthemums and peonies frequently appear in art, each having its own meaning.

The poinsettia painted here, with its vibrant red color and star-like shape, symbolizes celebration and joy. It is presented in a Chinese-inspired vase, a nod to Tretchikoff’s time in Asia, with the chrysanthemum representing a long and prosperous life.