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拍品专文
LE PHO'S ROMANET PERIOD
In 1931, Le Pho went to Paris for the first time to assist Victor Tardieu, the head of the Hanoi École des Beaux-Arts, in the preparation for the Exposition Coloniale. After Paris, Le Pho visited other cities throughout France in Moulins and continued his travels through Italy, Germany and Belgium, where he visited cathedrals, monasteries and admired their treasures of sacred art. The trip with all its discoveries was no doubt a profound eye-opener for Le Pho, and was an opportunity to understand how art elevates the spirit in a deeply personal way. At this time, Paris was known as the "Ville-Lumière" where the best artists of the world would find their way to.
Le Pho returned to Vietnam in 1932 after his European trip. However, five years later in 1937, he decided to leave his comfortable post as an instructor at the École des Beaux-Arts of Hanoi, where he taught just after his trip to China, to try his chances in making a living as an artist in Paris. Before this, one of his first achievements was to perfect the technique of silk painting: A piece of Japanese pongee silk is placed on a light cardboard. Remy glue is then spread onto the silk in a criss-cross pattern and the glue bubbles are carefully eliminated by pushing them towards the edges of the silk, which is then put to dry overnight. As the final step, gouache and ink are applied.
Using his refined technique, Le Pho executed from 1930 some wonderful and exceptional paintings on silk. This became a technique he pursued on his return to France in 1937, where he began his lifelong romance with the French capital and made it his home up to his last days in 2001.
The Romanet period of Le Pho comes from the name of a famous and excellent Parisian gallery which used to exhibit Le Pho at the beginning of the 1940s and until the fifties. However, it is more appropriate to describe the Romanet years from 1946-47 to 1963, and this has been universally defined to mean the 'Romanet style' of painting he favoured then.
Le Pho was recognized by his mastery in silk painting technique for his ability to express both delicate translucence and brilliance in texture and palette. More importantly, it is the soul that inspires his work, that articulates its richness and complexity, all layered to compose on the theme of motherhood (perhaps also because Le Pho was a very young orphan). Paintings such as La Couture (Sewing) (Lot 409), Mere et Enfant (Mother and Child) (Lot 410), Ladies in the Garden (Lot 419), Les Baigneuses (The Bathers) (Lot 425) and Jeune Fille au Bouquet (Young Girl with a Bouquet of Flowers) (Lot 426) all belong to his Romanet period, and are all a recollection and intrinsically imbued with a Vietnamese identity. Compared to his early period before 1945, the artist added sometimes a thicker varnish in his 'mixed media' that included oil, different to the classical use of gouache, even if ink was still in use.
In 1963 with his commitment to Wally Findlay Gallery a new style emerged: oils on canvas (sometimes large) with a whole new range of style and colours.
Jean-François Hubert
Senior Consultant, Vietnamese Art
In 1931, Le Pho went to Paris for the first time to assist Victor Tardieu, the head of the Hanoi École des Beaux-Arts, in the preparation for the Exposition Coloniale. After Paris, Le Pho visited other cities throughout France in Moulins and continued his travels through Italy, Germany and Belgium, where he visited cathedrals, monasteries and admired their treasures of sacred art. The trip with all its discoveries was no doubt a profound eye-opener for Le Pho, and was an opportunity to understand how art elevates the spirit in a deeply personal way. At this time, Paris was known as the "Ville-Lumière" where the best artists of the world would find their way to.
Le Pho returned to Vietnam in 1932 after his European trip. However, five years later in 1937, he decided to leave his comfortable post as an instructor at the École des Beaux-Arts of Hanoi, where he taught just after his trip to China, to try his chances in making a living as an artist in Paris. Before this, one of his first achievements was to perfect the technique of silk painting: A piece of Japanese pongee silk is placed on a light cardboard. Remy glue is then spread onto the silk in a criss-cross pattern and the glue bubbles are carefully eliminated by pushing them towards the edges of the silk, which is then put to dry overnight. As the final step, gouache and ink are applied.
Using his refined technique, Le Pho executed from 1930 some wonderful and exceptional paintings on silk. This became a technique he pursued on his return to France in 1937, where he began his lifelong romance with the French capital and made it his home up to his last days in 2001.
The Romanet period of Le Pho comes from the name of a famous and excellent Parisian gallery which used to exhibit Le Pho at the beginning of the 1940s and until the fifties. However, it is more appropriate to describe the Romanet years from 1946-47 to 1963, and this has been universally defined to mean the 'Romanet style' of painting he favoured then.
Le Pho was recognized by his mastery in silk painting technique for his ability to express both delicate translucence and brilliance in texture and palette. More importantly, it is the soul that inspires his work, that articulates its richness and complexity, all layered to compose on the theme of motherhood (perhaps also because Le Pho was a very young orphan). Paintings such as La Couture (Sewing) (Lot 409), Mere et Enfant (Mother and Child) (Lot 410), Ladies in the Garden (Lot 419), Les Baigneuses (The Bathers) (Lot 425) and Jeune Fille au Bouquet (Young Girl with a Bouquet of Flowers) (Lot 426) all belong to his Romanet period, and are all a recollection and intrinsically imbued with a Vietnamese identity. Compared to his early period before 1945, the artist added sometimes a thicker varnish in his 'mixed media' that included oil, different to the classical use of gouache, even if ink was still in use.
In 1963 with his commitment to Wally Findlay Gallery a new style emerged: oils on canvas (sometimes large) with a whole new range of style and colours.
Jean-François Hubert
Senior Consultant, Vietnamese Art