142 - Lê Quốc Lộc (1918–1987) – Indochina School of Fine Arts.

Lê Quốc Lộc (1918–1987) – Indochina School of Fine Arts. Village on the Banks of the Red River. Six-panel folding screen in polychrome lacquer (red, black, and silver lacquer with gold highlights on a wooden panel). Incised signature “Q-LÔC” in the lower right corner Circa 1942–1943, Height: 99.5 cm – Length: 196.5 cm. Each panel measures approximately 32.5 cm in width. Signs of wear, small areas where the lacquer is missing, 30-cm cracks on the right panel, and that same panel is warped. The hinges between the screen panels are missing. Created around 1942–1943, this folding screen belongs to the artist’s most sought-after period: the one immediately following his graduation from the prestigious Indochina School of Fine Arts in Hanoi. The year 1942 also marked the opening of his own studio in Hanoi. Together with his assistants, he produced several known versions of this work, all created between 1942 and 1943. This piece embodies the golden age of the revival of modern Vietnamese lacquer art, a movement initiated under the leadership of Victor Tardieu and Joseph Inguimberty, in which Vietnamese artisans elevated traditional craftsmanship to the status of a major pictorial art form on the international stage. A Poetic Ode to His Native Tonkin Born in the province of Hưng Yên, on the left bank of the Red River, Lê Quốc Lộc presents here a deeply intimate and topographical composition. The work unfolds an idyllic and timeless landscape of Tonkin. Through a subtle alternation of planes, the painter guides our gaze along the bustling banks of a fishing village, where traditional dwellings nestle beneath lush vegetation. The floating perspective, inherited from traditional Asian scrolls, harmonizes beautifully with the panoramic and immersive format of the folding screen. The Virtuosity of the Medium: Gold and Radiance Lê Quốc Lộc’s technical genius lies in his absolute mastery of the lacquer’s color palette. The pervasive use of gold and silver powder for highlights creates an incredibly poetic play of light, lending the river’s water and the sky a misty, dreamlike, almost twilight-like atmosphere. The striking contrast between the depth of the black lacquer, the brilliance of the red lacquer, and the delicacy of the precious metals attests to the infinite patience and months of successive polishing required to bring out the light within the material. IMPORTANT: THIS LOT IS SUBJECT TO RESTRICTIONS. TO BID ON THIS LOT, A DEPOSIT OF 20,000 EUROS IS REQUIRED; PLEASE CONTACT THE AUCTION OPERATOR.