Tretchikoff ’s enchanting Miss Wong to have her day

ONE of Vladimir Tretchikoff's most recognised paintings, Miss Wong, as well as an original glazed earthenware pitcher by Pablo Picasso and a resurfaced Alexis Preller masterpiece, will be among the works auctioned at Stephan Welz’s Decorative and Fine Arts Sale in Cape Town on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The auctioning of the wellknown Tretchikoff painting, valued at R4m-R6m, follows on the heels of the sensational sale of the artist’s Chinese Girl at a London auction for £1m earlier this year.

According to Andrew Lamprecht, lecturer at the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Art and curator of the 2011 retrospective exhibition of Tretchikoff’s work at the Iziko South African National Gallery, Miss Wong was “without a doubt the one work that got away”. Despite great efforts, he was unable to convince the painting’s owner to loan the work to the exhibition, even for one night.

“The owner explained that the day would come when she would be ready to share Miss Wong, but it was not yet. I am deeply satisfied that this day has now come,” Mr Lamprecht said.

Picasso’s earthenware Little Wood Owl pitcher was created in 1968 and is numbered 162 of a limited edition of 500. It is valued at R50,000 to R70,000.

While ceramics are not Picasso’s best-known art form, the artist had a love for the medium, and produced extensive ceramics during the years he lived in the south of France, which were known to be his happiest.

Interest in these works has been increasing since the Royal Academy of Art’s flagship exhibition of Picasso ceramics in London in 1998.

Earlier this year, a Sotheby’s auction of important Picasso ceramics was a white glove sale, with every item sold.

When Picasso visited a pottery exhibition in Vallauris in 1946, he was introduced to Suzanne and Georges Ramie who owned the Madoura Pottery workshop.

This was the beginning of a long and prolific partnership during which they produced about 4,000 different plates, bowls, vases, pitchers and other forms in limited editions ranging from 25 to 500.

Enchanted with his surroundings, he often incorporated bucolic figures like goats and birds into his work, but always presented in his characteristic abstract style.

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to handle this whim- sical work by Picasso. Whilst we do come across the artist’s painted plates from time to time, such sculptural ceramic works are far more unusual. The simplified form and gestural painting resonate with the artist’s renowned abstract style,” said Shona Robie, head of Ceramics at Stephan Welz in Cape Town.

Miss Wong belongs to the wellknown genre of Asian beauties through which Tretchikoff’s fame was initially made, and more than one critic has gone so far as to say that it is the best of Tretchikoff's paintings, Mr Lamprecht said.

Research conducted by Tretchikoff biographer Boris Gorelik has revealed that the sitter for Miss Wong was Camps Bay resident Valerie Howe.

According to Pigeon’s Luck, Tretchikoff’s autobiography, the artist intended the work to be a companion to Chinese Girl for his 1953 American “breakthrough” exhibition.

The Stephan Welz auction will be held in the Great Cellar, Alphen Estate, Alphen Drive, Constantia, Cape Town.

Pre-auction viewing is open to the public daily at no charge until Sunday.