Upcoming sale
47th Asian Painters Sale - Preview of a selection of previously unseen works prior to the sale on May 13, 2025 at 2:30 pm


Tiếng Việt
French

At its 47th sale dedicated to modern Asian art, Aguttes will present previously unseen works by Vietnamese painters Lương Xuân Nhị, Mai Trung Thứ, Lê Phổ, Lê Quốc Lộc..., as well as a rare portrait by their first director Victor Tardieu, and an interesting ink by Chinese artist Sanyu.

The catalog, to be published on April 25, will describe 30 to 40 lots exclusively related to modern Asian art. While the catalogue is still open, here's a sneak preview of some of the remarkable new works it will contain.
 

Victor Tardieu portraitist

Victor Tardieu (1870-1937)
Portrait de femme,1912
Oil on canvas, signed and dated middle right
73 x 59,5 cm

PROVENANCE
Private collection, Western France (acquired in the early 1980s and kept ever since)
 

The man who in 1925, just 100 years ago, became the first director of the Indochina School of Fine Arts, trained at the Lyon School of Fine Arts, then at the Académie Julian and finally at the Paris School of Fine Arts. It was this rich background that inspired the artist when, in 1912, he painted the portrait of this elegant woman. He was living in Paris at the time, and already had a taste for travel, initiated by his Salon Premier Prix in 1902, which enabled him to travel to Italy and England. In this delicate portrait, he depicts an elegantly dressed woman in lace, fur and hat. The dark tones of her clothes and background contrast with her complexion, itself highlighted and illuminated by the light lace and tulle. A few years later, he sailed for Hanoi and became one of the major players in the revival of modern art in Indochina.



Lê Phổ, a work influenced by the Italian Renaissance


Lê Phổ (1907-2001)
Le bain, circa 1938
Ink, gouache and colors on silk, signed upper left
61 x 45,5 cm

PROVENANCE
Private collection, Paris (acquired circa 1938 and since inherited)
 

Artist Lê Phổ, trained at the School of Fine Arts in Hanoi, first discovered France in 1931, when Victor Tardieu chose him as an assistant for the Colonial Exhibition in Vincennes. The young graduate took advantage of this stay to travel in Europe - notably Italy, where he was captivated by the Italian primitives and Renaissance - before returning to teach in Indochina in 1932. Lê Phổ returned to Paris in 1937. He represented his ailing master Victor Tardieu as artistic director of the “Indochina” section of the Universal Exhibition set up on Ile aux Cygnes. He never returned to Vietnam.



Ill. 1. Raphaël (1483-1520)
La Vierge au chardonneret
oil on canvas
Galerie des Offices, Florence ©Uffizi


Le bain was painted around 1938. In this delicate silk, he depicts a mother drying her child after a swim, while in the background, a young woman washes a sheet in the stream. Lê Phổ transposes onto silk the lessons of the Italian Renaissance that he had encountered a few years earlier: a play of diagonals organizes the space between water and land. Lê Phổ has also retained the lesson of pyramidal composition, particularly used by Raphael for his Virgins with Child (ill. 1). It is to this Virgin and Child motif that Lê Phổ refers with Le bain: the work can, for example, be likened to Perugino's Virgin and Child, painted in the 1515s (ill. 2). The Virgin stands upright and Christ stands in a contrapposto position, naked, just like the child in Lê Phổ's silk. Particular attention is paid to the treatment of the cloth drapes surrounding the child. The latter reuses the red color specific to the Virgin's garment and the delicate workmanship of the draperies.



Ill. 2. Le Pérugin (1450-1524)
Vierge à l'Enfant
oil on canvas
Galerie Borghese ©Galleria Borghese




Lương Xuân Nhị : painting rural Vietnam


Lương Xuân Nhị
Deux jeunes filles vendent du thé, autumn 1936
Ink and colors on silk, signed lower right, countersigned, dated and titled upper left In its original frame
49,5 x 40,5 cm on view

PROVENANCE
Private collection, Hanoi then France (bought in Vietnam between 1936 and 1938)
Private collection, France (by descent)
 

Typical of the silks presented by the Sadeai in Hanoi in the mid-1930s, this silk composition has been kept in the same family for 90 years and comes to us in its original frame.

When he painted this work, dated autumn 1936, Lương Xuân Nhị was completing his studies at the Indochina School of Fine Arts. He depicts two young girls selling tea, seated on the floor. One is handling a bowl containing tea leaves while the other sits behind. Lương Xuân Nhị made the choice, right from the start of his career, to depict rural Vietnam.

Thus, the subject appears traditional, while the technique is modern as the artist mixes Chinese, Vietnamese and Western techniques using a soft, sober chromatic range. This work can thus be compared with L'Atelier de Broderie : the delicacy of the choice of subject, tonality and technique are very similar.




Lương Xuân Nhị (1914-2006),
L’Atelier de broderie
Sale [20] Aguttes, April 12, 2019, lot 9



Mai Trung Thứ and Phạm Văn Kỳ : a set of six inks of royal provenance


The Duke and Duchess of Windsor in their 16th arrondissement Paris mansion
©Photo by Horst P. Horst/Condé Nast via Getty Images


These six inks, once in the personal collection of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, have a proven royal provenance. Indeed, Edward VIII, King of England and Emperor of India, abdicated in 1936 for the love of his future wife, Wallis Simpson. The couple, taking the title of Duke and Duchess of Windsor, subsequently settled in Neuilly-sur-Seine.




Mai Trung Thứ (1906-1980)
Six ink and color on silk, signed and dated In their original frames made by the artist

PROVENANCE
Collection of LL. AA. RR. the Duke and Duchess of Windsor
Private collection, France (donated by previous owners and held for over 40 years)

These six small inks and colors on silk have never been presented on the market since they entered the illustrious couple's collection. Their subject is well-known, as they were chosen by the artist to serve as models to illustrate the 1961 edition of Poème sur soie, written by Phạm Văn Kỳ. A nod to the royal collection holding the originals...This box set was issued in 550 copies of various qualities. An edition of this box set will also be presented for sale on May 13, 2025.



Lê Quốc Lộc and the Art Deco movement

Lê Quốc Lộc (1918-1987)
Bananiers au bord du fleuve Rouge, 1943
Lacquer with gold and silver highlights, six panels, signed and dated lower right
99,5 x 196 cm

PROVENANCE
Private collection, Saigon (acquired before 1946 and then repatriated to France)
Private collection, France, (inherited from previous owner)



One of the spearheads of the School of Fine Arts is revealed in its work and research on the art of lacquer. Artist Lê Quốc Lộc trained in the school's dedicated section within the Class XII (1938-1943).

When he created our folding screen in 1943, Lê Quốc Lộc had just completed his training and was already demonstrating his attraction to the decorative arts. The composition bears witness to the Art Deco-style influences that circulated widely in Hanoi, particularly with the decoration of the interiors of large cruise ships. The work of Jean Dunand (1877-1942) can be cited as an influence, with large lacquer commissions such as, for example, the panel shown opposite and preserved at the Musée des arts décoratifs, which decorated the first-class smoking room on the liner Normandie.

Lê Quốc Lộc's simplified forms, flat tints and gold highlights bear witness to a true artistic dialogue between Paris and Hanoi.

Jean Dunand (1877-1941), Decorative panel that was part of the La Chasse ensemble located in the first-class smoking room of the Normandie liner
©Photographe Jean-Claude LEMEE/ Ecomusée de Saint Nazaire.
Copyright, ADAGP, Paris, 2008

First-class smoking room on the liner Normandie, with the Jean Dunand set in the background, 1935



Mai Trung Thứ, a prolific artist


Mai Trung Thứ (1906-1980)
La coiffure, 1953
Ink and colors on silk, signed and dated upper left In its original frame made by the artist
26 x 26 cm

EXPOSITION
November 5-16, 1954, “Peintures sur soie de Mai-Thu”, Mâcon Chamber of Commerce

PROVENANCE
Private collection, France



Mai Trung Thứ (1906-1980)
Enfants au jardin, 1954
Ink and colors on silk, signed and dated lower left In original frame made by the artist
19 x 16,4 cm

PROVENANCE
Collection Louis Combaud, Macon (donated by the artist, a family friend)
Private collection, France (inherited from previous owner)

EXPOSITION
November 5-16, 1954, “Peintures sur soie de Mai-Thu”, Mâcon Chamber of Commerce



1954 was a busy year for Mai Trung Thứ, as he took part in three exhibitions. The first was in Paris at the Galerie de l'Institut, where he presented sixty works (March 26 - April 8). Next, the artist's work is exhibited at the Mâcon Chamber of Commerce, from November 5 to 16. Mai Trung Thứ closes this rich year with the exhibition “Peintures sur soie de Mai-Thu” at Galerie Bellecour in Lyon, from November 20 to December 4.



Mai Trung Thứ in Mâcon

La coiffure and Les enfants au jardin were exhibited at the November show in Mâcon. An interesting archive photograph shows the artist posing, while the two works stand out on the wall. The event, widely reported in the local press, was a great success, as witnessed by this extract from Le Progrès du Dimanche :

"In Mâcon, if we're used to seeing the fine works of regional artists, we're not used to seeing those by the sons of oriental empires."

Mai Trung Thứ doesn't exhibit in Mâcon by chance. His stay in the town between 1941 and 1943, during the Second World War, had enabled him to forge strong ties with the town and its inhabitants. He therefore returned to exhibit at the Chamber of Commerce, where exhibitions were regularly held. José Mingret (1880-1969), a local painter, said of Mai Trung Thứ  :

"Recently my comrade Mai-Thu, a Vietnamese of great talent, held an exhibition in Mâcon that I consider quite remarkable, for the science of the drawing, the subtlety of the coloring and the great spirit that reigns in the composition."




Exhibition at the Mâcon Chamber of Commerce, 1954 ©Archives
Mai-Thu Poster for an exhibition of silk paintings at the Mâcon Chamber of Commerce, 1954
Private collection ©DR



Of different origins, it is moving to bring together today, 71 years later, each of these two works, La coiffure and Les enfants au jardin.



Michel Habart, one of the first collectors of Chinese Sanyu

Sanyu (1895-1966)
Femme assise
Ink on paper, signed lower right
44,5 x 27,5 cm

PROVENANCE
Michel Habart Collection
Private collection, Paris (family heirloom)