* LÊ PHỔ (1907-2001)

Lot 5
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Estimation :
200000 - 300000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 256 490EUR
* LÊ PHỔ (1907-2001)
L’ illumination de Bouddha, 1947 Ink and color on silk, signed and dated lower lef 34 x 44 7/8 in L’Illumination de Bouddha refers to the Awakening of Siddhārtha Gautama. After a life of opulence and pleasures, the prince compels himself to poverty and fasting. Not finding the quietude sought in either of these two paths, he goes to the edge of the river, bathes there then sits at the foot of a tree to enter into meditation and thus find the way. The demon Mâra seeks to prevent him from reaching Awakening and sends him several kinds of temptations: first his own daughters to seduce him with dance and flattery, then his soldiers or, depending on the version, his watches. Siddhārtha Gautama remains impassive and then becomes Buddha. “It is near the village of Uruvelâ, south of Patna, that the Gautama, seated at the foot of a fig tree, at the revelation of revealing knowledge.” 1 It is the first temptation that is represented in this painting by Lê Phô. In the Buddhist culture, the army of Mâra describes the feelings of confusion coming to disturb the human spirit. This order of an individual evokes the interior torment without warlike aspect. A woman makes an offering to Gautama, the two contents on the right of the painting appear to be dancing and can thus represent the daughters of the Mâra demons. As for the two peacocks perched on a branch, they can be interpreted in at least two ways. The first would be Western, stemming from Greek mythology, and would place the animal as a symbol of vanity. The second, closer to Buddhist culture, these birds as symbols of beauty and transmutation, hunters of snakes and synonyms of immortality. The cloud of smoke that crosses the painting in halos illustrates the link between the earth and the sky, the material and the spiritual, the soul towards the beyond. This episode precedes the Benares sermon during which Buddha shares his revelations, and which results in the conversion of five monks. The number of followers then increases rapidly.
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