Footnotes

Provenance
A private collection.

Exhibited
Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Victoria, Vladimir Tretchikoff's second touring exhibition to Canada, May 1965.

Literature
Boris Gorelik, Incredible Tretchikoff, Life of an Artist and Adventurer, (London: Art Books Publishing Ltd, 2013), p. 200. (listed as Balinese dancer, c. 1959) (illustrated).

The mid-1950s in North America saw a rise in the mass production and consumption of artwork that possessed a thematic glimpse into a colonial idealised concept of Indonesian landscapes and people; a romanticized "serene and sultry fairyland far, far away" (Gorelik, p. 199). This theme caught on due to the notions of escapism and optimism of post-war America while also providing a getaway for those who could not afford a physical holiday. This theme's rise in popularity also coincided with Tretchikoff's North American tour; perhaps exposing him to market potential. Tretchikoff had never travelled to Bali, but he had been elsewhere in Indonesia as a prisoner of war under the Japanese army from 1942 after the ship that was evacuating him and his family to South Africa was bombed. Separated from his family, Tretchikoff found himself in Serang and then on parole in Batavia (now Jakarta). Trips away from Jakarta were prohibited by Japanese authorities at the time and, following the war Tretchikoff was successfully reunited with his wife and daughter in South Africa in 1946. In this case, Tretchikoff emulated what he, and the wider population, romanticised about Bali.

The subject is the focus of this painting, with no distractions of background incorporations. She is depicted as strong, beautiful, and striking in her contoured and dynamic features, gazing directly at the viewer emulating confidence and pride. It is no wonder that Balinese Dancer was widely regarded among some of Tretchikoff's most popular works. Consistent in his series of portraits of Balinese women, the subjects were depicted with off the shoulder dresses, 'sumbings' (thick stretcher style earrings), and a strong sense of light and dark, defining the subjects' strong facial contours. Following the exhibition of Balinese Dancer at Tretchikoff's Canadian tour in 1965, lithographs of this work became available in 1967. A lithograph of this work can be seen in a 1967 article in a SA magazine and was further featured in adverts for Tretchikoff's 1968 tour of South Africa under the title 'Burmese Girl'.

While the subjects of the Balinese portraits were fictitious, they were inspired by a woman that Tretchikoff met a handful of times in Singapore in 1937 called Ni Pollok, a temple dancer in legong. The traditional dress worn for this dance, resonates with the figure in this painting, with golden pendants, headdress, and a gold brocade. Traditionally a form of royal entertainment, many of the dancers would marry nobility, with Pollock allowed to remain a dancer until the age of nineteen due to her immense talent. Pollock married Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres, a Belgian aristocratic artist who refused Tretchikoff's wish to paint her portrait upon their meeting. As a result, Tretchikoff, fuelled by memories that had accumulated over the twenty years after their meeting, produced the Balinese studies, of which the present lot belongs to.

Visiting South-East Asia after his first American tour may have reignited this thematic content for Tretchikoff, "The series of Balinese portraits that Tretchikoff exhibited at Harrods continued his gallery of fantasy oriental women. These glamour ladies were younger sisters of 'Chinese Girl', 'Miss Wong', and 'Lady from Orient'"(Gorelik, p.199). These works were much like the painter Auke Sonnega, a Bali-based artist Tretchikoff had befriended in the 1930s. Boris Gorelik interestingly points out that when 'Tretchikoff was working on his Balinese studies in South Africa, Sonnega produced an acclaimed series of portraits inspired by ladies from the same island'. (p.202). It could be suggested that Tretchikoff was informed by Soonega's works as well as depicting his romanticised ideals of his subject, displaying a commitment to his subject matter whilst it was primarily formulated on his fantastic and surreal imagination.

We would like to thank Boris Gorelik for his assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.

Bibliography
Boris Gorelik, Incredible Tretchikoff, Life of an Artist and Adventurer, (London: Art Books Publishing Ltd, 2013)