Notes

Accompanied by Howard Timmins and Stuart Cloete (1969) Tretchikoff, Cape Town: Howard Timmins, linen-covered hardcover, illustrated in colour and black and white, text in English, signed and dated 1969 by the artist.

"Tretchikoff firmly believes that a flower is a living organism, subject to pain in the same way as an animal or human. Indeed, modern science has discovered that a cry of pain is uttered by the flower when it is cut. This is the theme of the picture, which is far more than merely an excellent example of the artist's skill in composition and capable draughtsmanship."¹

Painted during his internment in Java in the Second World War, Bleeding Lily (Java) is one of the rare surviving works from this formative period. Working with limited materials and under extreme duress, Tretchikoff produced images of striking clarity and symbolism. Here, the cut lily, its stem severed and bleeding, is more than a botanical study: it is a metaphor for endurance under unimaginable stress; beauty persisting even when threatened by violence.

The painting connects directly to the artist’s encounter with Lenka, his muse during these years, whose encouragement led him to commit fully to painting after the war. Its heightened palette – deep reds against pale petals – signals his first sustained experiments with colour as emotional force, a feature that would later define his most celebrated portraits and still lifes.
The composition is bold and allegorical. A lily, emblem of purity, lies severed on a wooden surface; a knife rests beside it, and a droplet of red hints at the price of renewal. In the background, a vigorous plant rises against a dark, theatrical horizon, symbolising survival, growth, and the regenerative cycles of life and death. Tretchikoff’s palette is sharp and theatrical, the contrasts dramatic, already foreshadowing the cinematic colour and allegorical narrative that would define his later, internationally celebrated work.

Rarely seen on the market, works from this period are of exceptional importance in tracing the arc of Tretchikoff’s career – from pre-war illustrator and designer to an artist who redefined popular painting in the mid-20th century. Bleeding Lily (Java) thus stands not only as a poignant wartime image but as a pivotal marker of transition, announcing the sensibility that would make him both one of the most recognisable and one of the most debated painters of his time.

Andrew Lamprecht, Curator of Historical Paintings and Sculpture at the Iziko South African National Gallery.

^1. Richard Buncher (1950) Tretchikoff, Cape Town: Howard Timmins, unpaginated.

Literature

Richard Buncher (1950) Tretchikoff, Cape Town: Howard Timmins, illustrated in black and white, unpaginated.