LÊ PHO (1907-2001). Indochina School of Fine Arts. Class of 1930. Young woman seated in a garden. circa 1965. Framed oil on canvas signed lower right. Dimensions: 71.5x89 cm. Typical of the Findlay period, this work combines all the elements of Lê Pho's artistic development. In 1963, the artist signed a quasi-exclusive contract with the American gallery Wally Findlay, a period that lasted until his road accident in 1990, when he was unable to paint. The modernization of his art in recent years has gone hand in hand with an increase in the size of his canvases and a switch from gouache to oil on canvas. Representing one of his favorite subjects, a woman accompanied by a bouquet, the use of vibrant, shimmering colors takes on a role that the first period of the artist's work, inspired by Confucian thought and tradition, never did. Color less than form, rapidity of gesture less than calligraphic precision, the painting is intended to abound. Seated among this myriad of flowers, a young woman in a rattan armchair and wearing a white ao daï delicately grasps one of the flowers in a sumptuous bouquet contained in a blue-white porcelain stoneware vase, typical of late 19th-century Vietnamese production. Her apparent calm, reinforced by the pale colors of her dress, contrasts with the abundance of flora around her. The work seems to give less importance to the model than to the setting, and it is with the virtuosity of a painter with a complex and complete approach that the representation is vivid and full of life. We would like to thank Mr. Alain Le Kim, the rightful owner, for his authentication, and confirm that the furniture depicted corresponds to that found in the family home at the time, as do the species of flowers that also featured in his garden. The work will appear in the artist's catalog raisonné currently in preparation.