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Lot Essay
MAI TRUNG THU: THE HAPPINESS OF ELEGANCE AND THE ELEGANCE OF HAPPINESS
The rare and delicate works in the following collection come together to present an interesting angle in the study of Mai Trung Thu's work. These acquisitions were made in Paris, and having since then remained within the family are brought here to market for the first time. The collection showcases with great clarity key works by a great master through the consistently high quality of the works produced, as well as his unique ability to imbue his paintings with a visible poetry thoroughly in tune with his time – revealing an artist in search of answers amidst the context and present uncertainties of the period.
In these magnificent works from the 1960s, incomparably fresh, Mai Thu reaches the height of his true talent. His gouache and ink are finely affixed to the silk medium – perfectly displaying the subtle tones of colour, the elegant play of light, the underlying movement and vitality of each scene – each detail a testament to the mastery of the painter.
Mai Thu regarded the work of art as a complete object having since the 1950s created, with extreme care, the frames that he considered essential to each work. Subtly painted, sometimes gilded or silvered and even incised, these frames became an essential part of his composition. Mai Thu payed particular attention to the mount in the tones and dimensions he used as a part of the composition of the painting. From the gouache, the ink, the silk, the subtlety of the line and the tone, the additional and complementary structure of the frame, every aspect gives Mai Thu's work an indisputable strength. The physical works themselves are of readily accessible size, easily transportable, as Mai Thu generously offers a piece of his eternal Vietnam to his collectors.
The following collection provides us with a perfect snapshot of the artist's style from the 1960s. Despite being away from Vietnam, and living in France (only returning to Vietnam once in 1962) the painter continued to search a strong Vietnamese pictorial identity. The woman and the child, his two eternal themes, are one of his most beloved subjects of painting, perhaps revealing an unceasing desire for home and comfort. Far from an exile, Paris was his city and where he painted The Poetry of Spring (Lot 405), or Reclining Woman (Lot 406) with their Arcadian gardens in the background, The Children (Lot 407), The Little Brother (Lot 411), described as studious or affectionate, Girl Pulling Her Hair (Lot 408) almost inquiring, Tranquil (Lot 409) where the young girl's quest is almost religious, Maternitè (Lot 410) where the mother with a soft gesture keeps a face expressing an ancestral authority.
This magnificent body of pure works, is an expression of the messianic soul of Mai Thu and expression of his hope: that happiness must be celebrated with elegance, and that elegance is in service of happiness.
Jean-François Hubert
Senior Consultant, Vietnamese Art
The rare and delicate works in the following collection come together to present an interesting angle in the study of Mai Trung Thu's work. These acquisitions were made in Paris, and having since then remained within the family are brought here to market for the first time. The collection showcases with great clarity key works by a great master through the consistently high quality of the works produced, as well as his unique ability to imbue his paintings with a visible poetry thoroughly in tune with his time – revealing an artist in search of answers amidst the context and present uncertainties of the period.
In these magnificent works from the 1960s, incomparably fresh, Mai Thu reaches the height of his true talent. His gouache and ink are finely affixed to the silk medium – perfectly displaying the subtle tones of colour, the elegant play of light, the underlying movement and vitality of each scene – each detail a testament to the mastery of the painter.
Mai Thu regarded the work of art as a complete object having since the 1950s created, with extreme care, the frames that he considered essential to each work. Subtly painted, sometimes gilded or silvered and even incised, these frames became an essential part of his composition. Mai Thu payed particular attention to the mount in the tones and dimensions he used as a part of the composition of the painting. From the gouache, the ink, the silk, the subtlety of the line and the tone, the additional and complementary structure of the frame, every aspect gives Mai Thu's work an indisputable strength. The physical works themselves are of readily accessible size, easily transportable, as Mai Thu generously offers a piece of his eternal Vietnam to his collectors.
The following collection provides us with a perfect snapshot of the artist's style from the 1960s. Despite being away from Vietnam, and living in France (only returning to Vietnam once in 1962) the painter continued to search a strong Vietnamese pictorial identity. The woman and the child, his two eternal themes, are one of his most beloved subjects of painting, perhaps revealing an unceasing desire for home and comfort. Far from an exile, Paris was his city and where he painted The Poetry of Spring (Lot 405), or Reclining Woman (Lot 406) with their Arcadian gardens in the background, The Children (Lot 407), The Little Brother (Lot 411), described as studious or affectionate, Girl Pulling Her Hair (Lot 408) almost inquiring, Tranquil (Lot 409) where the young girl's quest is almost religious, Maternitè (Lot 410) where the mother with a soft gesture keeps a face expressing an ancestral authority.
This magnificent body of pure works, is an expression of the messianic soul of Mai Thu and expression of his hope: that happiness must be celebrated with elegance, and that elegance is in service of happiness.
Jean-François Hubert
Senior Consultant, Vietnamese Art