Vladimir Grigoryevich Tretchikoff

Kazakhstan – 26 August 2006 in Cape Town, South Africa) was one of the most commercially successful artists of all time - his painting Chinese Girl (popularly known as "The Green Lady") is one of the best selling art prints ever.
Tretchikoff was a self-taught artist who painted realistic figures, portraits, still life and animals, with subjects often inspired by his early life in China and Malaysia, and later life in South Africa. Tretchikoff's work was immensely popular with the general public, but is often seen by art critics as the epitome of kitsch (indeed, he was nicknamed the "King of Kitsch"). He worked in oil, watercolour, ink, charcoal and pencil but is best known for his reproduction prints which sold worldwide in huge numbers. The reproductions were so popular that it was said Tretchikoff was second only to Picasso in his popularity