Vladimir Tretchikoff’s original painting of the Chinese Girl, believed to be the world’s most reproduced print, is to go on sale in London.
Russian artist Vladimir Tretchikoff, who died in 2006, claimed that by the end of his career he had sold half a million large-format reproductions of the print worldwide.
The portrait of a young Chinese girl with distinctive green-hued skin and ruby lips could fetch up to £500,000 ($800,000).
The painting will form part of Bonhams’ South African art sale on March 20.
Vladimir Tretchikoff, who grew up in Russia and Shanghai, eventually settled in South Africa in 1946 and painted the Chinese Girl in Cape Town in 1952.
His model was Monika Sing-Lee, then 17, whom he spotted working at her uncle’s launderette in Sea Point, Cape Town.
Vladimir Tretchikoff’s original painting of the Chinese Girl, believed to be the world’s most reproduced print, is to go on sale in London
According to Vladimir Tretchikoff’s biographer Boris Gorelik, the image – also known as the Green Lady – went on to become “one of the most important pop culture icons in Britain and the Commonwealth in the 1950s”.
Its popularity led to Vladimir Tretchikoff being called the “king of kitsch” – a moniker he hated, insisting he was a serious artist.
The painting was brought directly from the artist by a woman in Chicago when Vladimir Tretchikoff was touring the US in the 1950s. It has remained in the same family for the past 60 years.
“The combination of lustrous golden silk and the blue-sheen of the model’s skin combine to produce an otherworldly glow: a luminescence that is the leitmotif of Tretchikoff’s best works,” said Giles Peppiatt, director of South African Art at Bonhams.
Chinese Girl will be exhibited in New York and Johannesburg prior to its sale.
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An artwork thought to be the earliest replica of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa has been discovered at Madrid’s Prado Museum.
Prado Museum said it did not realize its significance until a recent restoration revealed hidden layers.
The artwork features the same female figure, but had been covered over with black paint and varnish.
The painting is thought to have been created by one of Leonardo’s students alongside the 16th century original.
There are dozens of surviving Mona Lisa replicas from the 16th and 17th centuries – when, as a new US exhibition illustrates, copying famous artworks was a thriving business.
The Art Newspaper, which reported the discovery, said the “sensational find will transform our understanding of the world’s most famous picture”.
The original painting, which currently hangs at the Louvre in Paris, is obscured by several layers of old, cracked varnish.
The Art Newspaper said the removal of the black paint on the replica had revealed "the fine details of the delicate Tuscan landscape", which mirrors the background of Leonardo's masterpiece
However, cleaning and restoration is thought to be too risky because the painting is fragile.
The Art Newspaper said the removal of the black paint on the replica had revealed “the fine details of the delicate Tuscan landscape”, which mirrors the background of Leonardo’s masterpiece.
Martin Bailey, who reported on the discovery for the paper, said: “You see Lisa’s eyes, which are quite enticing, and her enigmatic smile. It actually makes her look much younger.”
In fact, the new painting has led experts to speculate that the woman who sat for the Renaissance Masterpiece was in her early 20s – much younger than the Louvre’s original appears to show.
As the replica remained hidden for so long under the overpaint, experts had believed it was painted long after Leonardo’s death.
But after using x-rays to analyze the original drawings underneath, conservators have concluded the work was carried out at the same time as Leonardo’s original.
Prado Museum presented its findings at a conference on Leonardo da Vinci at London’s National Gallery.
There is still some restoration to complete on the painting but, once it is finished, it will be exhibited at the Louvre in March, allowing visitors to compare the two works.
