VU Cao Dam (1908-2000). Seated nude. Ink, gouache on silk, dated 1938, signed twice, in Latin and Vietnamese characters and bearing two stamps on the right, pasted on a cardboard with traces of the artist's brush Height : 59 59 - Width : 46 cm approximately (small scratches) Cardboard support : Height. Height : 64,5 - Width : 50 cm Provenance: Former collection of the governor of French Indochina Albert Sarraut (1911-1914; 1917-1919) then by direct descent. Comparative works: "Maternity," Paris 1946, for the composition of the female figure. "Young Naked Woman", circa 1935, National Art Gallery, Singapore. We thank Mrs. Yannick Vu Jakober, daughter of the artist, for confirming the authenticity of these works which will be included in her catalog raisonné. These works have been pre-selected to be exhibited (with the agreement of their future buyer) in the upcoming exhibition at the Musée Cernuschi in Paris devoted to the Vietnamese painters Mai Thu, Vu Cao Dam and Le Pho. To bid on this lot, a deposit will be required, please contact the office at +33 4 67 60 90 18 or [email protected] The rediscovery of Albert Sarraut's personal collection is an event in the study of the work of a sacred monster of Vietnamese art. Vu Cao Dam was, along with Mai-Thu and Le Pho, the most brilliant student of Victor Tardieu, co-founder of the Hanoi School of Fine Arts (he graduated first in his class on June 20, 1931). Tardieu allowed young artists to obtain a Western academic training, opening the way to Vietnamese modernity. Born in Hanoi in 1908, the fifth child of a Catholic family of fourteen, Vu Cao Dam was raised by an educated and French-speaking father. In 1926, he entered the Hanoi school and specialized in sculpture. For five years he trained with his master, whose portrait he painted in 1928. After graduating in 1931, Vu Cao Dam participated in the 1931 Colonial Exhibition but did not travel to France until the end of the year. From then on, never leaving the capital, he distinguished himself there by creating the bust of the current Minister of the Colonies, Albert Sarraut, and that of Emperor Bao Dai. Around 1938, married to a young pianist, the war distanced the artist from bronze creations and he concentrated on rare terracotta sculptures and extraordinary paintings on silk. It was during these years, when he was still living at 32 rue Alphonse Bertillon in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, that the artist executed the two works we present. In 1946, Vu Cao Dam exhibited at the Van Riek Gallery. His work was praised by the critics and admired by President Ho Chi Minh on a trip to Paris. From 1949, the artist left the capital for health problems and turned more and more to nature until he changed his way of painting. He died in 2000 in Nice, France, where he enjoyed an international reputation that was recognized by the most important institutions. The importance of the two works presented here lies as much in their quality as in their exceptional provenance. Remaining in the Sarraut family's personal collection since their creation, they bear witness to the link between the paragon of Vietnamese art and the former governor of Indochina. On the one hand, the Seated Nude, appeals to us by the softness of the line and the intensity of the color. A syncretic work between East and West, it is both Matissian and resolutely Asian. Between the purity of the line and the detail of an individualized hair, the signatures are superimposed between the worlds. It is amazing to find such a rare and intimate work in a governor's collection, far removed from the official commission of her bronze bust in 1931. On the other hand, the Portrait of a Young Woman strikes us by its size. To our knowledge, this is the largest terracotta head by Vu Cao Dam, the other figures being no larger than 25 cm. With a deep softness, strewn with the fingerprints of the artist who modeled it, it reveals the ability of great artists to reinvent themselves. Deprived of bronze because of the war, Vu Cao Dam explored clay and developed a patina based on water paint, milk (casein) and wax. Deprived of everything but the love of his wife, his work has never been so great.