Vladimir Griegorovich Tretchikoff

(South African, 1913-2006)

Resurrection

Footnotes

Provenance
Toronto, Eaton's, American and Canadian Tour Exhibition, September 1954;
Private Collection of Jack Hammell (acquired from the above exhibition);
Private Collection, Ontario;
Waddington's, Toronto, 29 November 1984;
A private collection.

Exhibition
Cape Town; Johannesburg; Durban, Stuttafords Department Store, South African Tour Exhibition, September - November 1952
San Jose, CA, Rosicrucian Art Gallery, June 1953
USA; Canada, American and Canadian Tour Exhibition, 1953-1954.

Literature
V. Tretchikoff and H. Timmins, Tretchikoff (Cape Town, 1969), n.p (illustrated)
Vladimir Tretchikoff and Anthony Hocking, Pigeon's Luck (London, 1973), p. 205 (illustrated, pp. 134 & 136)
Andrew Lamprecht, ed., Tretchikoff: The People's Painter (Jeppestown, 2011), p. 166 (illustrated)
Boris Gorelik, Incredible Tretchikoff: Life of an Artist and Adventurer (London, 2013), p. 288 (illustrated, p. 138).

In 1952, when Tretchikoff was preparing for his first show in America which would launch his international career, a Cape Town director asked him to star in a film. It would be a documentary set in the artist's studio, showing the birth of an artwork from the first sketches to the painted canvas. Tretchikoff accepted the challenge. Although it meant working under the penetrating gaze of the camera, he decided that he could use the colour film to promote his work in the United States. The resultant documentary, Birth of a Painting, traced the creation of Resurrection (1955).

At the time, Tretchikoff was fascinated by the idea that, when dying, the old gives way to the new - a theme explored by the artist in Resurrection. 'The painting was to symbolise the emergence of the soul from the body', recounted Tretchikoff. 'I painted a young girl awaking as if from a dream, the reincarnation of the gaunt, black, crooked body that she had been' (V. Tretchikoff and A. Hocking, 1973: p. 205).

Cape Town papers reported that the artist's wife, Natalie, acted as a model for the painting. 'I was so cold, it was a wonder I did not get pneumonia', she told the press. However, the existing footage indicates that another nude model sat for Tretchikoff during the filmed sessions.

Resurrection was first exhibited during Tretchikoff's tour of South Africa in 1952. The following year, it was taken to California and included in his show at the Rosicrucian Gallery, San Jose. The startling Resurrection was one of the highlights of this exhibition, and reproductions of the work were available for sale. At all of the public talks and lectures to promote the artist's American debut, Tretchikoff showed the Birth of Painting documentary, asserting the significance of Resurrection within his artmaking practice at this time.

The commercial success of the San Jose show enabled Tretchikoff to hold a tour of the United States and Canada, which lasted for nearly two years. In September 1954, among the 52,000 visitors who attended his exhibition at Eaton's Toronto, 'Canada's Greatest Store', was the mining magnate Jack Hammell. He became the first owner of Resurrection.

Along with Resurrection, Hammell purchased several paintings by Tretchikoff that day, including the iconic Dying Swan (1949). Later, the artist learnt that this prominent collector had only one painting in his private suite: it used to be a Titian, but had been replaced with Resurrection.

The 1969 volume of Tretchikoff's works indicates that the painting subsequently belonged to John McKay-Clements of Haileybury in North-eastern Ontario (now part of Temiskaming Shores). Apparently, the new owner purchased the work from Hammell's heirs after 1958. Resurrection first came to auction in 1984, when it was sold by Waddington's in Toronto. For nearly seventy years, this work, highly valued by the artist, has remained in private collections.

We are grateful to Boris Gorelik for the composition of the above footnote.

Bibliography
Vladimir Tretchikoff and Anthony Hocking, Pigeon's Luck (London, 1973), p. 205.