Incredible Tretchikoff: Life of an Artist and Adventurer

London: Art/Books, 2013. First Edition. 304 pages: illustrations (some colour); 22 cm. Printed on coated stock. Very fine; as new. Paperback. ISBN: 9781908970084, 1908970081

A high quality production, with numerous reproductions of the artist's works. "Coinciding with the centenary of his birth, 'Incredible Tretchikoff' tells the enthralling story of this flamboyant artist from his humble beginnings to the spectacular highs and lows of his later career. We hear thrilling accounts of his early years as a Russian orphan in Manchuria and his efforts to make his way as a young man in a strange land. In Singapore in the 1930s, he was accepted into the social elite and his art became talk of the town. Meanwhile, he secretly worked for the British Ministry of Information producing anti-Axis propaganda. But his high living was brought to an abrupt end by the war. He was nearly killed when the Japanese sank the boat on which he was trying to escape; taken prisoner, he was forced to use his artistic skills for the enemy. Accused by his captors of being a spy, he somehow survived, and was eventually reunited with his wife and daughter in Cape Town after the war. Within years, through sheer determination and despite the hostility of the local art community, Tretchikoff had become South Africa's best-selling artist" —Publisher