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A historic leader in the market for artists from Asia, Aguttes totaled over 3.3 million euros on May 22, 2024 in Neuilly-sur-Seine for its 43rd sale dedicated to modern art, with 92% of lots sold by value.

TOP 5

Lot 8 – Vũ Cao Đàm, Maternité, 1944 : 528 560 €
Lot 5 – Thang Trần Phềnh, _Le chef du village à cheval demandant son chemi_n : 452 000 €
Lot 6 – Thang Trần Phềnh, Le lettré lisant devant les villageois : 452 000 €
Lot 9 – Lê Phổ, Nature morte aux pivoines et plante en pot : 452 000 €
Lot 7bis – Trinh Huu Ngoc, Jeune femme songeuse pensant à l'être aimé : 203 180 €

VŨ CAO ĐÀM (1908-2000), HEADLINER

During the 43rd “Asian Painters” sale, Vũ Cao Đàm, Class II (1926-1931) and valedictorian of the Indochina School of Fine Arts, won the highest bid, with Maternité, 1944. 528 560 € rewarded the artist's talent and the rare iconography of this work with a universal language. It represents one of the artist's favorite themes: the bond between mother and child. Vũ Cao Đàm, who always treats it with sensitivity and delicacy, chooses to illustrate it, here, through a subject that is extremely rare in Asia: the privileged moment of breastfeeding. While this theme has been present since ancient Egyptian times - through statuettes of Isis breast-feeding her son Horus - and has accompanied the history of art throughout its evolution, little is known about it in Asia.


VŨ CAO ĐÀM (1908-2000)
Maternité, 1944

Ink and colors on silk, signed at the bottom right
60 x 46.4 cm
Original frame
Provenance:
Private collection, Paris (acquired in the 1940s)
Private collection, Paris (passed down by descent from the previous owner)

The four works by this artist, born in Hanoi in 1908 to a French-speaking, Francophile father, totaled 922 160 €. Still on the theme of motherhood, Mère et enfant (lot 11) fetched 177 120 €, while Fleurs, 1957 (lot 35) fetched 65 600 €. The bronze sculpture Jeune fille annamite, le modèle Paul Reynaud (lot 10), meanwhile, fetched 150 880 €, despite the fact that Vũ Cao Đàm had first shown a keen interest in sculpture during his artistic training and career.

ANOTHER GRADUATE OF THE CLASS II (1926-1931), THANG TRẦN PHỀNH (1895-1973)

Thang Trần Phềnh (1895-1973) narrowly missed passing the first entrance exam for the École des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine; being second on the waiting list, he was able to attend some courses as an auditor. The following year, at the age of 31, he joined the second class. Thanks to the encouragement of Victor Tardieu, the school's director, he exhibited alongside some of his classmates in Paris. His work was showcased in 1929 at the Salon de l’Art Colonial, organized by the Salon des Artistes Français at the Grand Palais in Paris, then at Vincennes during the 1931 Colonial Exhibition, and later at Agindo. Two of his works (lots 5 and 6) caused a bidding frenzy, each fetching 452,000 €, over six times their lower estimate.


Thang Trần Phềnh (1895-1973)
Le chef du village lisant devant les villageois
Ink and color on silk, signed Tran Binh and annotated upper right with a quotation evoking principles of manners
75 x 51.5 cm
Provenance : Collection of a family who lived in Indochina from the early 1890s to the early 1960s, and who were present in the Hanoi region when this work was produced.

Thang Trần Phềnh (1895-1973)
Le chef du village à cheval demandant son chemin
Ink and color on silk, signed Tran Binh and described lower right 75 x 51,5
Provenance:
Collection of a family who lived in Indochina from the early 1890s to the early 1960s and were present in the Hanoi area at the time this work was produced.

A family, having lived in Indochina from the early 1890s to the early 1960s, had entrusted Aguttes with these two works by Thang Trần Phềnh, unpublished on the art market. Thang Trần Phềnh was living in the Hanoi region at the time these two inks on silk were produced, and had probably acquired them at one of the exhibitions organized by the School of Fine Arts from 1929 onwards, or at one of the fairs in which its students were actively participating at the time. They were presented for sale in their original frame, most probably made by Gadin.

Sources :
Fonds Victor Tardieu, INHA, espace Jacques-Doucet, archives 125/5-9*
Tri ể n lãm Thang Tr ầ n Ph ề nh: B ắ t g ặ p quá kh ứ trong hi ệ n t ạ i, B ằ ng L ă ng, Th ể thao & V ă n hóa, 29 août 2022
C ố h ọ a s ĩ Thang Tr ầ n Ph ề nh: Tài hoa và độ c đ áo, Nguy ệ t Hà, Công An Nhân Dân, 1er septembre 2022

ANOTHER EMBLEMATIC ARTIST, LÊ PHỔ, CLASS I (1925-1930)

Nature morte aux pivoines et plante en pot (lot 9) sold for €452,000. Acquired in the 1980s in Saigon by Mr. T., a collector sensitive to the early talents of Lê Phổ, this canvas appears today as a rare testimony to the artist's early work and explorations of oil painting. In the early 1930s, Mr. T.'s family owned the Thai-Van Gallery, which exhibited artists from the Indochina School of Fine Arts in Haiphong. A family of collectors, the following generations remained sensitive to art and have always frequented artistic circles. Although Lê Phổ used a medium of Western origin, he chose to depict flowers linked to both European and Asian cultures. Rich in meaning, peonies are synonymous with prosperity, happiness, honor and beauty. Nicknamed “Queen of Flowers” in China, they were the national flower before being dethroned by plum blossoms.


LÊ PHỔ (1907-2001)
Nature morte aux pivoines et plante en pot, 1935
Oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right 65.7 x 45.3 cm
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Modern Art in Indochina, Charlotte Aguttes-Reynier, In Fine éditions d'art, 2023, repr. p. 120.
PROVENANCE
Personal collection of Nguyễn Sáng (received from his father, who had owned it since around 1940 according to family tradition).
Thai-Van Collection, Saigon (acquired from the previous owner in the 1980s)
Private collection, France (acquired from the previous owner in the 1990s)

Three other works by this artist, born on August 2, 1907 in Ha Tay province into a family of high-ranking mandarins, whose father was the viceroy of Tonkin, attracted the attention of connoisseurs. Les roses (lot 16) fetched 120 704 €, just behind Bouquet de renoncules sur un entablement (lot 14) which fetched 111 520 € (lot 14). A small format, Au balcon (lot 19), fetched 22 610 €.

ANOTHER MEMORABLE AUCTION FOR TRINH HUU NGOC

Jeune femme songeuse pensant à l'être aimé, 1936 (lot 7 bis) sparked a bidding war that reached 203 180 €, multiplying its high estimate by 16.


TRỊNH HỮU NGỌC (1912-1997)
Jeune femme songeuse pensant à l’être aimé, 1936
Ink and colors on silk, signed, titled, dated upper right
66 x 47 cm
We thank Madame Bui Hoang Anh for identifying the signature.
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Indochina, early 20th century Private collection, Lyon region (brought back to France and passed down in the family since)

The catalog also featured a group of 13 works by Alix Aymé (lots 12, 21, 24-34). These included a tempera on silk exhibited at the Palais Lumière (Évian-les-Bains, December 11, 2022 - May 21, 2023): “Traveling Women Artists, the Call of the Far Away (1880-1944), then at the Pont-Aven Museum (June 24 - November 5, 2023). Nature morte aux fruits, circa 1935 (lot 21) attracted bids up to 107 584 €.

Click here to discover all the results

Upcoming auction in preparation
Tuesday 10 September 2024 at 2.30pm and Tuesday 5 November 2024
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For more information or to include a lot in our next auctions, please contact
Charlotte Aguttes-Reynier - Expert
+33 1 41 92 06 49 - +33 6 63 58 21 82 - reynier@aguttes.com