Mère et Enfant (Mother and Child) painting of Vietnamese painter Le Pho (Photo: artcurial.com)
The auction is scheduled to start on June 8.
According to details given by The Value, Le Pho’s Mère et Enfant (Mother and Child) painting is on offer for an initial price of between EUR200,000 and EUR300,000. The 60 x 46,5 cm ink and gouache on silk painting has Pho’s signature in the upper left.
Le Pho, who lived from 1907 to 2001, was a prominent Vietnamese painter who developed a successful and prolific career in France with thousands of artworks to his credit. His pieces are enthusiastically hunted by art collectors from all over the world.
He is also the first Vietnamese artist whose paintings sold for US$1 million and over in public auctions. Some of his typical artworks include “The Family Life”, “Nude”, and “The beauty in a ‘sunshine’ shirt”.
Le Pho’s “Nue”, known as “Nude” in English, fetched US$1.4 million and is the highest auction price ever for a Vietnamese painting. The oil painting was sold for HKD10.9 million, equal to US$1.4 million, at the 20th Century & Contemporary Art auction held by Christie’s Hong Kong auction house in May, 2019.
Pho’s first painting to fetch over US$1 million was "Family Life" at the Sotheby's Hong Kong auction house in April, 2017.
Meanwhile, three other works by Mai Trung Thu, are being offered from EUR100,000 to EUR150,000 at the auction.
Accordingly, “Les deux sœurs, also known as “The Two Sisters”, and "Le balcon", also known as “The balcony” were drawn in 1945 while La toilette was made in 1943.
Mai Trung Thu, who lived from 1906 to 1980, known as Mai Thu, was born to a prominent northern family in Vietnam. In 1937, he departed France for the International Decorative Arts Exhibition with two friends he had met during his study Le Pho and Vu Cao Dam.
Thu's paintings have harmony in storytelling and East-West co-ordination, not only in materials, structure, and colour palette, but also in creating identity specific to a story. This is significant as although it tells a Vietnamese story, it is not too specific and private for Europeans to feel isolated.
The 135.5cm x 80cm Portrait of Mademoiselle Phuong painted by Mai Trung Thu in 1930 is oil on canvas and was offered at more than US$3.1 million at Sotheby's Hong Kong. It is one of the priciest Vietnamese artworks.