MASTER LACQUERER AND FIERCE GUARDIAN OF VIETNAMESE ARTISTIC TRADITIONS
 
The catalog of the sale Asian Painters, Major Works [31] opened with the listing of two beautiful lacquers by Phạm Hậu (1903-1995), one of the founders of the National School of Crafts, the ancestor of today's University of Industrial Fine Arts in Vietnam. Each of his works deals with personal themes, supported by meticulous work and a subtle chromatic palette. These works are characteristic of the artist's fame and greatness. 
 
A fervent guardian of Vietnamese artistic traditions, he joined the 5th class of the Hanoi School of Fine Arts in 1929. Supported by his teacher Joseph Inguimberty, he participated in the renewal of the ancestral know-how of lacquer painting by adding new pigments and materials. The teaching he received at the time enriched his palette. The traditional reds and blacks are shaded with vermilion, auburn and enriched with gold and silver. Different successive layers give contrast and depth to his work.
 
Here he pays tribute to the natural wealth of Vietnam, to the beauty of traditional landscapes by using elements of scenery familiar to his pictorial universe. In one, the female figure blends in total symbiosis with the lush vegetation of rice fields populated with traditional pagodas. In the other, junks sailing around rocks, in an idyllic bay, lined with banana and areca trees, underline the tropical nature of Vietnam. A lacquer by the artist with similarities raised up to 833,000 euros at Aguttes last June (lot 1). 
 
Lacquer painting is a major traditional art in Vietnam dating back to the 15th century. It is inseparable from the cultural history of the country. Its current influence abroad owes much to the impetus of Joseph Inguimberty, Alix Aymé, or even Phạm Hậu, and makes Vietnam a bastion of this technique. This generation of artists, politicized and proud of their origins, uses this art as an instrument for the dissemination and promotion of Vietnamese culture in the face of Chinese and Western imperialism.




PHAM HAU (1903-1995)
Village animé
Lacquer with gold and silver highlights, signed lower left 
Screen in 5 panels : 32.6 x 33 x 32.8 x 32.5 cm - 12 3/4 x 13 x 12 7/8 x 12 3/4 in. 
Totality : 110.5 x 130.9 cm - 43 1/2 x 51 1/2 in. 
 
Provenance
Collection of a Frenchman who lived in Indochina around 1950
Private collection, France (offered by the previous owner on his return from Indochina and kept since)

On sale Monday 29 November 2021


PHAM HAU (1903-1995)
Paysage aux jonques
Lacquer with gold and silver highlights, signed lower right
Screen in 3 panels : 50 x 100 x 50 cm - 19 5/8 x 39 3/8 x 19 5/8 in.
Totality : 105.6 x 200 cm - 41 1/2 x 78 3/4 in. 

Provenance
Collection of a Frenchman who lived in Indochina around 1950
Private collection, France (offered by the previous owner on his return from Indochina and kept since)
Related work
Pham Gia Yên, So'n Mài Pham Hâu, The lacquer art of Pham Hau, Nhà Xuât Bàn My Thuât Fine Arts Publishing House, 2019, repr. p. 44

On sale Monday 29 November 2021


PRACTICAL INFORMATIONS 

Asian painters, Major workss [31]
Public sale : Monday 29 November 2021 at 14h30
Aguttes • 164 bis, avenue Charles-de-Gaulle - Neuilly-sur-Seine


Charlotte Aguttes-Reynier
Director of the department, expert
+33 1 41 92 06 49 • reynier@aguttes.com




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