Aguttes, the historic market leader for Asian artists, sold nearly 84% of lots and set a new record at its 46th sale of modern Asian art on February 18, 2025 in Neuilly-sur-Seine.

 « Since 2014, Aguttes has been committed to highlighting the work of students at the Indochina School of Fine Arts, from which Lê Văn Đệ hails. While in 2011 the artist was little-known, we had presented the work Femme au chemisier transparent for sale twice, unsuccessfully at 2,000 euros. The recent insight we have since shed on the painter's career has enabled us to record a result for this same work that is 100 times higher, 14 years later, at 203,180 euros. I am delighted by the trust placed in us by its historical owner in 2025, when he entrusted us with the sale of the painting he had kept. On Tuesday February 18, collectors demonstrated through their bids their demand for works combining pedigree, signature and dating. »
— Charlotte Aguttes-Reynier, expert



Femme au chemisier transparent by Lê Văn Đệ (1906-1966), the highlight of the sale

An oil on paper by Lê Văn Đệ landed the highest bid of this 46th vacation dedicated to painters from Asia. Femme au chemisier transparent (lot 14) thus quadrupled its high estimate and scored 203,180 €.
 

Lê Văn Đệ graduated from the first class of the Indochina School of Fine Arts in 1930, ex-aequo valedictorian of the painting section. Talented, he won a scholarship to travel to Paris for the 1931 Colonial Exhibition. In 1932, he joined Jean-Pierre Laurens' studio at the School of Fine Arts in Paris to further his training. It was then that he produced this oil on paper mounted on canvas, dated January 3, 1932. The young woman, probably a classmate, is dressed, coiffed and made-up in the Parisian fashion of the thirties. Here, the artist opts for solid colors and visible brushstrokes. In the years that followed, Lê Văn Đệ traveled in Europe and settled in Italy, where he enjoyed some success. When he returned to Indochina in 1939, the Samipic (Société d'amélioration intellectuelle et physique des indigènes de Cochinchine) welcomed him with a fine event organized in his honor. The result recorded by Aguttes for this painting on paper highlights the talent of Lê Văn Đệ, an artist well known to the house, who has held the world record for a rare screen dated 1937 since 2016.



Mai Trung Thứ, headliner

Two medium-format works by Mai Trung Thứ (1906-1980), Grand-mère (lot 15), and L'aïeul (lot 18), tied at 78,720€, and thus totaled 157,440€.


Lot 18 - Mai trung Thứ (1906-1980)
L'aïeul, 1958
Ink and colors on silk, signed and dated lower left, titled on the back.
In original frame made by the artist.
20 x 36 cm

EXHIBITION
2024, Le renouveau de l'art moderne en Indochine, Aguttes, Neuilly-sur-Seine (October 2024)

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Charlotte Aguttes-Reynier, Le renouveau de l'art moderne en Indochine, 25 artistes - 52 œuvres.  
Association des artistes d'Asie à Paris, 2024, repr. p. 55.

PROVENANCE
Private collection, Provence; Private collection, Provence (inherited).


These two delicate inks and colors on silk highlight one of the artist's favorite subjects: intergenerational ties. In L'aïeul, the grandfather, a spiritual guide, reads to four attentive children. Both are presented in a frame created by the artist.

 

Still life by Lương Xuân Nhị

65,600€ rewarded artist Lương Xuân Nhị (lot 12).


Lot 12 - Lương Xuân Nhị  (1914-2006)
Bouquet of lily flowers
Oil on canvas, signed lower left
61 x 46 cm

PROVENANCE
Private collection, France (by descent in 1951 and again in 1996)


A certain realism always imbued with poetry and the use of soft colors characterize his work. Here, he chooses blue, green and brown tones against which the white of the lilies stands out. A Western genre that developed during the Renaissance and became a pictorial genre in its own right in the 17th century, the still life was to interest artists at the Indochina School of Fine Arts, as these lilies testify. Thus, this bouquet presented in a vase is the main subject of this work by Lương Xuân Nhị. A soft light bathes the entire composition, in this Vietnamese-decorated interior.



A celebration of women

The Indochina School of Fine Arts celebrated women, as evidenced by a panel by Alix Aymé (lot 19), which changed hands at 40,000 €, and a sculpture by Évariste Jonchère (lot 20), which fetched 32,800 €.


Lot 19 - Alix Aymé (1894-1989)
Jeune femme pensive, circa 1940-1945
Lacquer with gold and silver highlights, one panel, signed lower right
46 x 36 cm

EXHIBITION
2024, Le renouveau de l'art moderne en Indochine, Aguttes, Neuilly-sur-Seine (October 2024)

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Charlotte Aguttes-Reynier, Le renouveau de l'art moderne en Indochine, 25 artistes - 52 œuvres.
Association des artistes d'Asie à Paris, 2024, repr. p. 14.

PROVENANCE
Private collection, South-East France

Jeune femme pensive testifies to Alix Aymé's mastery of the art of lacquer. Indeed, from 1935, the artist taught at the Indochina School of Fine Arts in Hanoi, where she quickly developed her knowledge of this technique alongside Joseph Inguimberty. The characteristic flat tints of color and highly decorative aspect echo the work of the Nabis, with whom Alix Aymé, a pupil of Maurice Denis, was very familiar.
 

Lot 20 - Évariste Jonchère (1892-1956)
Jeune Laotienne
Bronze, shaded brown patina/veined red marble base
Original posthumous print, Ed. 3 / 8, signed and marked cire perdue Godard.
Head height: 33 cm Total height: 49.5 cm

PROVENANCE
Collignon-Laurent sale, Soissons, France, February 23, 2002, no. 153 Private collection, France

BIBLIOGRAPHY
(For the bronze cast in Biên Hòa in 1935) Roger Gain and Lucienne Jonchère Debiol, Évariste Jonchère, Paris, A. Biro, 1991, repr. p. 108


Évariste Jonchère, sculptor-painter, First Grand Prix de Rome, Indochina Prize, created the original sculpture Jeune laotienne, during a two-month stay in Luang Prabang, Laos. A bronze print of this sculpture was cast in Biên Hòa, probably in 1935, and was exhibited on various occasions throughout the 20th century in France, including in 1935 and 1936 at the Salons de la France d'Outre-Mer and in 1956 at the Salon des artistes français. Here, the sculptor models the gentle face of a young girl, adorned with a necklace and a pair of earrings, her long hair tied back in a bun. Her expression is frank and direct. The print presented this week is a posthumous cast: it is numbered 3/8 and was lost-wax cast by the Godard foundry. The Godard foundry began using this lost-wax technique when it took over the premises of the Bisceglia foundry in 1962.


A history of transmission

Subsequent generations of artists trained in Vietnam have continued to honor women. Nguyễn Trung's Femmes aux lotus (lot 30), which fetched 59,040 €, is the artist's second world record. This painting perfectly illustrates the first, figurative period of his production, dating from the early sixties to the mid-seventies. It is characterized by depictions of female figures, with simple, delicate features and wide eyes.


Lot 30 - Nguyễn Trung (né en 1940)
Femmes aux lotus, 1974
Oil on canvas, signed lower left
149.5 x 100 cm

PROVENANCE
Private collection, Paris, France


Born in 1940 in Vietnam, Nguyễn Trung trained at the School of Applied Arts in Gia Đinh, graduating in 1962. Then very active on the Vietnamese scene, in 1966 he co-founded the Association des Jeunes Artistes, an avant-garde artistic group in Saigon.