Martha Noémi Winterstein (née Famin; known as Tela Tchaï; August 10, 1909 – July 15, 1993) was a French

actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...

, and

dancer Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnic groups * Romani people, or Roma, an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin ** Romani language, an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities ** Romanichal, Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom * Romanians (Romanian ...

origin.

Biography

Tela Tchaï was born and raised in

Roubaix Roubaix ( , ; ; ; ) is a city in northern France, located in the Lille metropolitan area on the Belgian border. It is a historically mono-industrial Communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, depar ...

. She was a model for several painters, including

André Derain André Derain (, ; 10 June 1880 – 8 September 1954) was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. In 2025, all of Derain’s work entered the public domain in the United States. Life and career Early ...

. As an actress, she starred in a dozen films, before becoming a painter herself. One of her paintings, entitled ''Bouquet de fleurs'', was acquired in 2019 by the La Piscine Museum.

Filmography

* 1932: '' L'Atlantide'' by

Georg Wilhelm Pabst Georg Wilhelm Pabst (25 August 1885 – 29 May 1967) was an Austrian film director and screenwriter. He started as an actor and theater director, before becoming one of the most influential German-language filmmakers during the Weimar Republic. ...

: ''Tanit Zerga'' * 1932: ''

Gitanes Gitanes (, " Gypsy women") is a French brand of cigarettes, owned and manufactured by Imperial Tobacco following their acquisition of Altadis in January 2008, having been owned by SEITA before that. History Gitanes was launched in 1910 in f ...

'' / ''Les Deux routes'', by

Jacques de Baroncelli Jacques de Baroncelli (25 June 1881 – 12 January 1951) was a French film director best known for his silent films from 1915 to the late 1930s. He came from a Florentine family who had settled in Provence in the 15th century, occupying a buildi ...

: ''Tela-Tchaï'' * 1932: ''Bolero'' by

Max Reichmann Max Reichmann (1884-1958) was a German film director active during the silent film, silent and early sound eras. Before making his own films, Reichmann worked as an assistant director on several E.A. Dupont productions. After graduating to directi ...

* 1934: '' Roi de Camargue'' by Jacques de Baroncelli: ''Zinzara'' * 1937: '' La Symphonie des brigands'' / ''Peppino'' by Friedrich Fehér: ''the servant'' * 1937: '' Les Secrets de la mer Rouge'' by

Richard Pottier Richard Pottier (6 June 1906, in Graz – 2 November 1994, in Le Plessis-Bouchard) was a film director in France. He was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire as Ernst Deutsch. Selected filmography * ''If I Were Boss (1934 film), If I Were Boss'' ( ...

: ''Sultana'' * 1939: ''Tourelle 3'', unfinished film by

Christian-Jaque Christian-Jaque (byname of Christian Maudet; 4 September 1904 – 8 July 1994) was a French filmmaker. From 1954 to 1959, he was married to actress Martine Carol, who starred in several of his films, including ''Lucrèce Borgia'' (1953), ''M ...

: ''Mayena''Tela-Tchaï will be the heroine of ''Tourelle Trois''.
''

Le Figaro () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...

'', August 13, 1939, p. 4, . * 1943: '' Les Mystères de Paris'' by

: ''La Punaise'' * 1945: ''

Farandole The farandole (; ) is an open-chain community dance popular in Provence, France. It bears similarities to the gavotte, jig, and tarantella. The carmagnole of the French Revolution is a derivative. Etymology No satisfactory derivation has bee ...

'' by

André Zwobada André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese language, Portuguese form of the name Andrew and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French language, French-spe ...

: ''the fortune teller''

Bibliography

* Gérard Gartner: ''TLes sept plasticiens précurseurs tsiganes.

Otto Mueller Otto Melller (16 October 1874 – 24 September 1930) was a German painter and printmaker of the Die Brücke expressionist movement. Life and work Mueller was born in Liebau (now Lubawka, Kamienna Góra County), Kreis Landeshut, Silesia. ...

–

Serge Poliakoff Serge Poliakoff (January 8, 1900 – October 12, 1969) was a Russian-born French modernist painter belonging to the 'New' École de Paris ( Tachisme). Biography Serge Poliakoff was born in Moscow in 1900, the thirteenth of fourteen children. H ...

– Helios Gomez – Tela Tchaï –

Django Reinhardt Jean Reinhardt (23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953), known by his Romani people, Romani nickname Django ( or ), was a Belgium, Belgian-born Romani jazz guitarist and composer in France. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe ...

– Constantin Nepo – Yana Rondolotto'', Marinoel editions, Paris, 2011. * Germain Hirselj, "''Tela Tchaï, la vamp des grands chemins''", in ''People and stones of Roubaix'', No. 31, November 2021, p.14-23.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tchai, Tela 1909 births 1993 deaths 20th-century French actresses 20th-century French painters 20th-century French women artists French film actresses French people of Romani descent French women painters People from Roubaix People from Saint-Tropez Romani painters Romani people in art