The Blue Lady is based on a 1950 painting by Vladimir Tretchikoff. It became one of the world's most popular paintings when made into a print in the 1960s and 1970s. The painting was of an unknown Chinese girl and was best known for the unusual skin tone used for her face (a blue-green color). Recently, the model for Tretchikoff's painting was found to be a then 17-year-old Monika Sing-Lee (now Monika Pon), who was then a single girl working in her uncle's laundry in Cape Town.