Asian Painters: China & Vietnam

Tiếng Việt

On February 26, 2026, Aguttes held its 50^th sale dedicated to highlighting modern Asian art, totaling more than €1.6 million. To date, more than 170 works by the three masters particularly present in France Lê Phổ, Mai Trung Thứ, and Vũ Cao Đàm have been presented at auction by Aguttes.
« Artprice’s analysis shows that the value of a painting by Lê Phổ comparable to La Lecture, sold today, has increased tenfold in 12 years. This is a concrete example of the undeniable place that the Vietnamese modern art segment has taken on the international art market. After Aguttes’ appraisal of more than 1,300 paintings, drawings, lacquers, and sculptures in this field and the unveiling of the work of more than 70 artists, this result reinforces the approximately €83.5 million total achieved by the auction house in this specialty between 2014 and 2026. »

— Charlotte Aguttes-Reynier, Associate Director in charge of the Fine Arts and Asian Art Department

Lot 5 - Lê Phổ (1907-2001), La lecture, 787 200€
Lot 16 - Circle of the École des beaux-arts of Indochina, Jeune fille à la colombe, circa 1940-1950, 103 648€
Lot 15 - Lê Phổ (1907-2001), Fleurs dans un vase bleu, 99 712€
Lot 11 - Vũ cao đàm (1908-2000), Fleurs de pavot, 91 840€
Lot 8 - Vũ cao đàm (1908-2000), Tête de femme, 90 528€

A graduate of the Hanoi École des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine in 1930, Lê Phổ settled in Paris in 1937 and became familiar with the major currents of French painting. At the same time, the artist gradually moved away from his youthful preference for painting on silk and turned toward oil painting. This medium allowed him to fully deepen the Western influences already present in his work—first by applying them to silk, as illustrated by Fleurs dans un vase bleu, and then by deploying them on the quintessential Western support since the 16^th century: canvas (see, for example, La Lecture).

These works embody a pivotal decade in his body of work: that of a talented student who became an artist in Paris, and who then moved toward a more independent path, enabling him to forge his own artistic trajectory and flourish in his adopted country.

From 1940 onward, the economic constraints linked to World War II made bronze casting in France extremely difficult, prompting him to return to painting on silk a demanding medium that allows no corrections and which he had mastered perfectly during his training in Hanoi.

Sale [51] Painters of Asia: China & Vietnam
Wednesday, May 13, 2026 at 2:30 pm