Frame size: Frame: 221 x 125 x 7 cm
This life-sized portrait depicts Madame Wellington Koo, born Oei Hui Lan (1899–1992), daughter of the prominent Peranakan Chinese tycoon Oei Tiong Ham (1866–1924). At the time the portrait was made in London, she was married to the famous Chinese diplomat Wellington Koo Vi Kyuin (1887–1985).Charles Tharp may have painted this portrait on the occasion of the Koos attendance at the State Ball at the Buckingham Palace, 7 July 1921. The Lafeyette Studio in London made several photographs of Madame Koo in the same dress.Oei Hui Lan was one of the twenty-six acknowledged children of Oei Tiong Ham, one of the richest man in the world, known as the Sugar Baron of Java. She was born in Semarang, Indonesia, by his first wife, nyonya Goei Bing Nio, and was said to be his favourite child. Like many cosmopolitan Peranakans of her time, Madame Koo moved comfortably in Asia and the West. Moreover, she played a key role in shaping Western opinions of Asia, especially as the wife of a prominent Chinese Nationalist ambassador. A fashion icon, she was named Best Dressed Lady in China by Vogue magazine in the 1920s.Oei Tiong Ham moved to Singapore around 1920, and Madame Koo also settled there late in life. She wrote two memoirs of her social experiences around the world.Born in Suffolk, Charles Julian Theodore Tharp (1878-1951) was a portrait painter, landscape painter and sculptor who studied at the Slade School of Art.
