LE PHO (1907-2001)

Maternity, ca. 1940 Ink and gouache on silk Signed and stamped upper right Framed under glass 62.5 x 46 cm (on canvas) 58 x 45.5 cm (view) Provenance : French private collection. Born in 1907 in Hadong, near Hanoi, and died in 2001 in Paris, Lê Phổ is a master of twentieth-century Vietnamese painting. Son of the viceroy of Tonkin, he overcame a difficult childhood thanks to his talent and passion for art. At the age of 16, he entered the professional school in Hanoi and, two years later, joined the first class of the École des Beaux-Arts d'Indochine. Under the guidance of Victor Tardieu and Joseph Inguimberty, he received a comprehensive training combining Western pictorial practices and Asian artistic traditions. His precocious talent was quickly noticed by Tardieu, who recruited him as an assistant for the 1931 Exposition Coloniale. He exhibited alongside Le Van De, To Ngoc Van, Thang Tran Penh and Do Dun Thun. In 1932, he attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, discovering Western painting on his travels in Europe. In 1933, back in Vietnam, he became a teacher at the Beaux-Arts d'Indochine and painted imperial portraits. A decisive trip to Beijing in 1934 enriched his style with the Chinese pictorial tradition. In 1937, he settled permanently in Paris, discovering the European avant-garde and the works of Bonnard, Matisse and Dufy. During the Second World War, he met André Romanet, Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse, who influenced his style. In 1963, he signed a quasi-exclusive contract with the American gallery Wally Findlay, producing large, colorful oils on canvas. Lê Phổ, the product of a refined education, combines Western heritage and traditional Vietnamese art, with Chinese influences. His works have been exhibited in Europe and the United States, and feature in the permanent collections of prestigious museums. His work can be divided into two key periods: his beginnings with paintings on silk and Asian techniques, followed by a transition to oil paintings inspired by the Impressionists. This evolution reflects his integration of the European avant-garde, influenced by artists such as Bonnard and Matisse. Elegant, charming women appear in many of Lê Phổ's paintings, wearing a white headband and dressed in a modern silk dress, called áo dài cách tân. Confusion arose around this white ornament in the women's hair, with some assuming it was a sign of family mourning - in contrast to the use of black in the West. However, a look at the history of the Indochinese period shows that, in 1930s Hanoi, young women tended to embellish their hairstyles with a white headband. Many photos show young women wearing white - as a new fashion - alongside the more conventional black. Looking at other artists, we can see in a charming lacquer by Alix Aymé, "Le marché aux fleurs du Têt", saleswomen, one with a baby in her arms, wearing white headbands. This modern style also appears in Vietnamese literature, as the prolific writer Nguyễn Công Hoan mentions in his famous work "Người ngựa ngựa người", describing a courtesan: "[...] A woman in her early thirties, dressed in brown satin, with a white headband down to her waist, stood at the end of the sidewalk [...]" Obviously, a woman seeking to entertain men would never want to appear connected with anything unfortunate. Therefore, we can consider that the white headband was rather a refreshing fashion style of the time, probably inspired by the French in Hanoi, and which inspired Lê Phổ in her impressive approach to Vietnamese women in her paintings. Looking at the boy, one might be surprised to see his curiously aged face. On the other hand, the boy presents mature facial features rather than an innocent or adorable look. Considering the history of art, we can gain some interesting insights into how Lê Phổ arrived at this adult-looking baby. The caring mother looks at her child, and the child reaches out to his mother, undeniably evoking the image of the Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus. Lê Phổ didn't strictly follow the homunculus (little man) concept, which literally means that Jesus was perfectly formed and unchanged, a sage like Benjamin Button. Instead, he has depicted the baby with a chubby appearance and thick black hair - a typically Asian child, while his mother displays a typically Asian demeanor.