Red Jacket is a 1998

1998 in film

-Events:* February 14 - Sharon Stone marries Phil Bronstein.* Former child star Gary Coleman is charged with assaulting a young female bus driver at a California shopping mall.-Top grossing films:...

 documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 about the life of the world's best-selling artist, Vladimir Tretchikoff

Vladimir Tretchikoff

Vladimir Grigoryevich Tretchikoff was one of the most commercially successful artists of all time - his painting Chinese Girl is one of the best selling art prints ever.Tretchikoff was a...

. The film was produced by Technitronics and televised by the SABC.

Synopsis

The documentary charts the life of Tretchikoff, featuring contributions with public figures and Tretchikoff himself. The documentary is titled Red Jacket, Tretchikoff memorably recalled his war-time lover and muse, Lenka wearing a red jacket when first meeting her. She would later pose as the model in his painting titled Red Jacket and also posed in The Green Lady

Chinese Girl

The Chinese Girl is a 1950 painting by Vladimir Tretchikoff. It became one of the world's most popular paintings when made into print in the 1960s and 1970s, and is one of the world's best-selling art prints...

, his most famous painting.

Production

The documentary was researched, produced and directed by Yvonne du Toit under the auspices of Technitronics. Several of the contributors held a history with Tretchikoff.

• Jani Allan
  Jani Allan
  Jani Allan is a South African columnist and radio commentator. She became a household name as a columnist for the Sunday Times where she worked between 1979-90. She is also known for her alleged affair with an interviewee, the late right-wing political leader Eugène Terre'Blanche...
  
   interviewed Tretchikoff for her Sunday Times column Just Jani in the 1980s. She later published a collection of columns as the book Face Value
  Face Value (book)
  Face Value is a book of collected journalism by South African journalist Jani Allan. The book is compiled from selections of Allan's successful gossip and popular culture column Just Jani that appeared in the Sunday Times. She was voted "the most admired person in South Africa." in a Gallup poll...
  
  including Tretchikoff's. The background notes she provided revealed that he had insisted she sit for a portrait. Allan was also qualified to speak to the reviewer as she has a background in art. A former art teacher, she holds degrees in Fine Art and History of Art. Her former husband, Gordon Schachat
  Gordon Schachat
  Gordon Schachat is a South African businessman and prominent art collector. He is featured regularly on the Sunday Times Rich List.-Personal life:...
  
   is also a prominent art collector in South Africa.

• Leonora Schmidt-Salomonson (Lenka) is the subjet of The Green Lady
  Chinese Girl
  The Chinese Girl is a 1950 painting by Vladimir Tretchikoff. It became one of the world's most popular paintings when made into print in the 1960s and 1970s, and is one of the world's best-selling art prints...
  
  , Tretchikoff's most famous painting. Several commentators have stated that her face was just as famous as Mona Lisa
  Mona Lisa
  Mona Lisa is a portrait by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is a painting in oil on a poplar panel, completed circa 1503–1519...
  
  . The painting is also the highest-selling print in history.

• Marilyn Martin is a former director of the South African National Gallery
  South African National Gallery
  The South African National Gallery is the national art gallery of South Africa located in Cape Town. The collection began in 1872 with the donation of Sir Thomas Butterworth's personal gallery....
  
   and considered by some as a detractor. In 2002, the Sunday Times reported that the gallery had never acquired works by the man considered by many as the country's leading realist painter. Despite the fact that Tretchikoff has resided in Cape Town for the past 60 years, Martin responded that the gallery had no intention of using the gallery's limited funds in acquiring his works as "he is not really regarded as a South African artist'" [and] "the revival of interest in his works would not be sustained."

• Beezy Bailey
  Beezy Bailey
  Beezy Bailey is a South African artist who works in several media, including painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking and ceramics....
  
  , the South African artist, controversial for exhibiting under the pseudonym of a black African woman, says Tretchikoff's ultimate crime was to appeal to the post-war working classes: "In the 1950s the whole class structure [in Europe and America] was as powerful as the apartheid structure in our country. That is why he hasn't been embraced and why he is uncool - his art was not snobby art, it was appreciated by the masses."

Release

The independent production was screened to national audiences on the state broadcaster, SABC in 1998. Since then it has been distributed for educational purposes by the Western Cape Provincial Library Service

Western Cape Provincial Parliament

The Western Cape Provincial Parliament is the legislature of the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is located in the Provincial Government Building at 7 Wale Street, Cape Town....

who issued a VHS/DVD version. It is commonly used as a resource for art students.