Charlotte Aguttes-Reynier, expert

From May 23 to June 2, 2023, Aguttes offers its second edition of the Asian Weeks of the year. As the only auction house in the world so specialized in the market of painters who received this double Asian and Western education at the beginning of the 20th century, Aguttes contributes once again to the highlighting of the artists of the Indochina School of Fine Arts. This 38th opus of Asian Painters, Major Works will honor the first classes trained in Hanoi by Inguimberty, Jonchère, Alix Aymé, under the direction of Victor Tardieu, such as Lê Phổ, Mai Trung Thứ or even Vũ Cao Đàm.


ASIAN PAINTERS, MAJOR WORKS ON 2 JUNE 2023

Lê Phô (1907-2001)
Sur la terrasse, circa 1940
Ink and colors on silk, signed upper left
57 x 38,1 cm - 22 7/16 x 15 in.

Sur la terrasse immortalizes the beauty and grace of the women of his country through a technique that blends the West and the Far East. If the medium made of ink and colors on silk is specific to the teaching of the Indochina School of Fine Arts, the posture of the model borrows from the Italian Mannerists of the 16th century. The serpentine figure accompanied by the movement of the scarf pays homage to the European masters he admired during his travels in the early 1930s. The composition is built in a pyramidal fashion and is punctuated by movement: the creeping foliage climbs while the little boy's arm undulates. The wooden balustrade of the terrace provides perspective and completes this refined setting with Asian resonance. The Olympian vision of Indochina in the 1940s brought Lê Phổ noticed by the gallery owner Romanet, who exhibited it in Algiers at the Galerie Pasteur from 1942 to 1944. This work was part of the exhibition entitled Maï-Thu, Le Pho, Vu Cao Dam, Peintures Indo-Chinoises.

A work from the first pictorial period of Lê Phổ
Created in a pivotal period between the 1931 World's Fair and his final move to France in 1937, Femme au balcon is part of Lê Phổ' first pictorial period.


LÊ PHÔ (1907-2001)
Femme au balcon, circa 1935
Ink and colors on silk, signed upper left
29.5 x 22.8 cm

PROVENANCE
Private collection of a Frenchman holding an important position in Indochina (acquired from the artist in Hanoi in the early 1930s)
Then by descent, France

The woman, young and elegant, already inspires the artist. The palette underlines the Far Eastern influences: made of dark tones, it is subtly enhanced by discreet touches of blue and red. Already mastering his brush, the balcony illustrates his technique of perspective while the scarf shows his mastery of movement. This artist, who graduated from the same class at the Indochina School of Fine Arts as another great name Mai Trung Thứ, arouses a real craze at each sale. He blends to perfection, by virtue of his training, Eastern and Western artistic traditions.

Mai Trung Thứ, the artist celebrating women

Mai Trung Thứ decided to settle in France in the late 1930s. The 37 previous auctions organised by Aguttes have brought her work, which had long remained confidential, back into the limelight, and the artist is now attracting a real craze among international collectors. Whether of young girls, mothers or landscapes, Mai Trung Thứ pays tribute to the beauty of the women of her native country by making them one of her favourite themes.


MAI TRUNG THU (1906-1980)
Maternité au fruit, 1942
Ink and colours on silk, signed and dated lower left
32,2 x 22,7 cm
In the original frame made by the artist

Having abandoned the oil painting of his beginnings, Mai Trung Thứ explored painting on silk, of which he quickly mastered the technique. He applies the colour which he then softens by successive washes. In his works, the painter describes femininity through several somewhat nostalgic perspectives of an idealized past.

In the 1950s Mai Trung Thu also explored color and became more and more familiar with it.  A group of five works from 1953 to 1975 offered for sale evokes the artist's talent for these joyful and vivid colors. Among them:


MAI TRUNG THU (1906-1980)
Offrande, 1968
Ink and colors on silk, signed and dated lower right, titled and dated on back
19,6 x 11,2 cm - 7 3/4 x 4 7/16 in.


MAI TRUNG THU (1906-1980)
Contemplation, 1979
Ink and colors on silk, signed and dated upper right
15,5 x 27,2 cm - 6 1/8 x 10 11/16 in.

Vũ Cao Đàm, emblematic artist of the 1st promotion of the Indochina School of Fine Arts
A key artist of the Ist graduating class of the Indochina School of Fine Arts, Vũ Cao Đàm made oil on canvas his favorite medium from the late 1950s. Several themes inspired him, among them a young man in meditation. While the painter represents this deity in several works, the palette varies from one painting to another.


VU CAO DAM (1908-2000)
Divinité, 1981
Oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, titled on back
73.5 x 60 cm

PROVENANCE
Wally Findlay Galleries, New York
Private collection, France

In Divinité made in 1981, her outfit features a subtle cameo of yellow contrasting with the red tones of the background. A great colorist, Vũ Cao Đàm carefully works his composition displaying a brushwork of great modernity.

Alix Aymé, only woman professor at the Indochina School of Fine Arts

Alix Aymé has lived in Asia for more than 25 years and has worked with many artists trained during this period. She sketches her daily life in Indochina, and her notebooks will allow her to recreate the atmosphere of the protectorate years after her departure.


ALIX AYME (1894-1989)
Le goûter. Dans l'atelier de l'artiste à Hanoï, circa 1940
Ink, watercolor and gouache on silk, signed lower right and titled on the back. The work is presented in the passe- partout with gold highlights painted under glass by the artist.
50 x 75.5 cm

PROVENANCE
Provenance Private collection, South-East of France

In Le goûter dans l'atelier de l'artiste à Hanoï the artist relies on various elements typical of his work. The curtains and this window identify her studio, while the little sleeping cat and the bouquet of flowers are recurring elements. The realization of the frame with gold powder shows a particular attention for this work on silk.

ASIAN ARTS ON JUNE 1, 2023

A pair of museum-quality imperial bowls in private hands, comparable to a porcelain in the Mnaag (Paris) and never published before


CHINA
Qing Dynasty, Qianlong mark and period (1735-1796)
A rare and important pair of blue-white porcelain campanulate bowls, the body decorated with two imperial dragons chasing the pearl among clouds and flames under a frieze of ruyi. The interior with a frieze of intertwined ruyi and a central medallion decorated with a five-clawed dragon. The base with a six-character Qianlong mark in zhuanshu in blue underglaze. Labelled "J.J. Klejman Gallery New York NY" under one and labels "J.J. Klejman Gallery New York NY" and "Frank Caro successor to C.T. Loo" under the other.
H. 9.4 cm - D. 13.3 cm

PROVENANCE
Collection of an important French aristocratic family

Bought in the 1960s-1970s in New York, this pair of bowls remained in the same French family. To date, there is only one identical reference piece: it is a bowl kept at the Musée National des Arts Asiatiques Guimet, in the collection of Ernest Grandidier (inventory number G 3528). The bowl from the Musée Guimet collection, never published since its purchase by Ernest Grandidier at the end of the 19th century, will therefore be presented in reference to the two bowls discovered by Aguttes, in the catalogue of the "Arts d'Asie" sale, and thus published for the first time. The two pieces, presented at the Aguttes auction on 1 June 2023, represent a major rediscovery of a rare imperial porcelain model.
The connoisseur will appreciate the lightness of the porcelain, the nuance of the blues and the workmanship of the line, and the slightly bluish glaze. Of museum quality, this pair is being auctioned for the first time, and to date, no similar model has been listed at auction. It has an unusual shape for the 18th century and offers a reinterpretation of the 16th century Ming.
It is a testimony to the finest porcelain of the 18th century and to the history of the collection, and bears the label of Frank Caro as the successor to Ching Tsai. Loo. Based in New York, London and Paris, the dealer Ching Tsai Loo has left his mark on the history of the art market. La Pagode (Paris, 8th arrondissement) hosted the personal collections of this expert in Far Eastern art from 1922 onwards, thus contributing to the reputation of this key figure in the international art market.

A major discovery : A very rare and important pair blue and white bellflower shaped dragon cup, Qianlong mark and period (1735-1796)





ASIAN PAINTERS, MAJOR WORKS