# Vladimir Tretchikoff artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/vladimir-tretchikoff/
Profile generated: 2026-05-16T22:53:13.718Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1913-12-13
- Death date: 2006-08-26
- Nationality: Russian, South African
- Movements: Popular figurative art
- Common media: Oil painting, Watercolor, Sculpture, Drawing, Printmaking (reproduction prints)

## About Vladimir Tretchikoff

Vladimir Tretchikoff (1913–2006) was a Russian-born painter, sculptor, and illustrator who became one of the most commercially successful artists of the twentieth century. Born in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, he fled the Russian Revolution as a child and spent his formative years in China, where he began his career as a cartoonist for the Shanghai Evening Post. After periods in Singapore and wartime internment on Java under Japanese occupation, he settled in South Africa in 1946 and remained there until his death in Cape Town. Tretchikoff is best known for Chinese Girl — popularly called The Green Lady — a portrait of a woman with distinctive blue-green skin tones that became one of the bestselling art prints in history. His bold, figurative style, featuring portraits, still lifes, orientalist subjects, and animal studies, earned enormous popular appeal even as it divided critical opinion. Today collectors encounter his work across originals, limited-edition prints, and widely distributed reproductions.

## Common works and media

Collectors most frequently encounter Tretchikoff through reproduction prints — particularly Chinese Girl (The Green Lady), The Dying Swan, Balinese Girl, and Lost Orchid. Original works include oil-on-canvas portraits and still lifes, watercolor figure studies, charcoal or ink drawings, and sculptural editions. Common subjects are female portraits (often with stylized skin tones), floral still lifes, wildlife and bird studies, orientalist figure compositions, and allegorical scenes. Prints were produced in large editions on paper and board, sometimes with the artist's stamped signature; hand-signed limited editions are less common and carry a premium.

## Market and appraisal context

Tretchikoff's market spans original oil paintings, watercolors, sculptures, and the vast reproduction-print industry that made his images ubiquitous in mid-century homes. The most significant valuation factor is distinguishing an original painting from a print — originals of iconic titles like Chinese Girl and The Dying Swan carry substantially higher auction values. Print editions vary in size, paper quality, and numbering, all of which affect collectibility. Condition is especially important for prints, which were mass-produced and often displayed without conservation. Provenance linking a work to Tretchikoff's South African or earlier Asian periods can provide useful context. Collectors should be aware that no comprehensive catalogue raisonné is referenced in available public records, which can complicate attribution.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine structured artist-identity research from authority files and institutional databases with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For Vladimir Tretchikoff, identity data is grounded in records from the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, the Getty Union List of Artist Names, VIAF, Wikidata, and the Library of Congress authority file.

## Sources

- RKD — Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/78159
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q716596
- VIAF (OCLC): https://viaf.org/viaf/30784691/
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500093360
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Tretchikoff
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50049843