42 - Ⓛ LE QUOC LOC (1918–1987)

Ⓛ LE QUOC LOC (1918–1987) “View of the Bay,” 1942 Polychrome lacquered wood diptych Signed and dated lower right 70 x 80 cm (each) Provenance: - French private collection. The work was acquired in Vietnam, likely between the late 1930s and the early 1950s, by Hélène Tissot (born in 1915 in Tourane) and her husband André Charpentier, whom she married in Saigon in 1936. Mr. Charpentier was a business partner of Lucien Berthet at the helm of the prestigious “Nouveautés CATINA” store in Saigon, an establishment that notably offered objets d’art and works by local and foreign artists. The couple, who were passionate about Vietnamese culture, built up a collection over the years of works representative of the art of colonial Indochina. The work has remained in the family to this day, passed down through the generations. LÊ QUỐC LỘC (1918–1987) “Panoramic View of the Bay,” 1942 Multicolored lacquer painting on wood, consisting of two panels joined to form a pair Signed and dated in the lower right corner 70 x 80 cm (each panel) Provenance: - Private collection in France. The work was purchased in Vietnam, likely sometime between the late 1930s and early 1950s, by Mrs. Hélène Tissot (born in 1915 in Tourane, now Da Nang) and her husband, Mr. André Charpentier, whom she married in Saigon in 1936. Mr. Charpentier was a business partner of Lucien Berthet; together they ran the renowned “Nouveautés CATINA” store in Saigon, a business specializing in a wide range of goods, including art objects and works by both local and international artists. As enthusiasts of Vietnamese culture, the couple gradually built a collection of works representative of Indochinese art from the colonial period. The works have remained in the family to this day and have been passed down through generations of descendants. The artist Lê Quốc Lộc (1918–1987) is considered one of the great masters of 20th-century Vietnamese lacquer art and a leading figure of the Indochinese School of Fine Arts. Born in 1918 in the province of Hưng Yên, in northern Vietnam, he enrolled at the Indochinese School of Fine Arts, where he trained amid the revival of Vietnamese art initiated by the institution. After graduating in 1942, he belonged to a generation of artists who, influenced by Western education while drawing on local artistic traditions, contributed to the development of a modern artistic language uniquely Vietnamese. Lacquer quickly became his primary medium of expression, a field in which he achieved a particularly remarkable technical mastery. In the 1940s, Lê Quốc Lộc opened his own studio in Hanoi and played an active role in the capital’s art scene. Like many artists who had studied at the Indochinese School of Fine Arts, he supplied works to the auction hall of the Indochinese Artists’ Cooperative, founded in 1938 by Évariste Jonchère, Victor Tardieu’s successor as director of the School. The works exhibited there were selected under the supervision of Joseph Inguimberty, assisted by Trần Văn Cẩn, helping to maintain a particularly high standard of artistic excellence. Landscape is one of the major themes of his work. Lê Quốc Lộc depicts an idealized Vietnamese natural world, populated by villages, rivers, sampans, bamboo groves, and lush vegetation. These elements are arranged in skillfully constructed compositions, where vegetation often frames the scene and guides the viewer’s gaze. His landscapes thus take on a dimension that is at once poetic, decorative, and deeply evocative of Vietnamese rural life. The artist explores this repertoire in various formats, ranging from large folding screens to individual panels and diptychs. The years 1942 and 1943—the period to which this work belongs—constitute a particularly significant phase in his artistic output. During this time, Lê Quốc Lộc repeatedly explored the theme of lakeside or bay landscapes, notably in compositions consisting of two panels forming a diptych. The diptych “View of the Bay,” dated 1942 and presented by Millon on June 27, 2026, (lot no. 23), as well as another diptych dated 1943 presented on April 11, 2026 (lot no. 59), bear witness to this particularly fruitful period of exploration. Artist Lê Quốc Lộc (1918–1987) was one of the most