SIBONGAKONKE MAMA
Staff Reporter
MORE than 30 years have passed since Barbara Layne and Christel Hesselman posed for acclaimed South African painter Vladimir Tretchikoff – and yesterday, the two women visited “their” paintings at the Iziko SA National Gallery.
A retrospective of Tretchikoff’s work Tretchikoff – The people’s painter opened at the National Gallery in May, and has attracted thousands of visitors.
Layne and Hesselman are the subject of Barbara in the Bath and Nude in the Mink, respectively. During their visit to the gallery to view the exhibition yesterday, the two reminisced about meeting and posing for the artist.
Layne was 33 when she met Tretchikoff at an exhibition in Port Elizabeth in 1976. The artist invited her for a cup of tea, and during that meeting he asked her to pose for him, Layne said.
“He looked at me and said, ‘You know, I could paint that face.’ He wasn’t listening to a word I said.
“I was flattered – I’d never posed for anyone before. I had admired him for years. I was not going to turn down being immortalised in a Tretchikoff painting.”
Hesselman was 19 when she posed for Tretchikoff, also in 1976.
“That was the first topless pose I did. He was such a gentleman and he made you feel so comfortable,” Hesselman said.
She did five sittings, each lasting between two and three hours, for Nude in the Mink.
“When I die, I’ll still be 19 years old,” she said.