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Lot Essay
The present work typifies a form of Western idealisation and romantisation of the Indochinese people and landscape. It presents the lush vegetation of the tropics foregrounded by the demure Oriental beauties who seemingly have very little interaction with one another but merely poising for the completion of the work. Joseph Inguimberty was the professor of painting in the Fine Arts School of Hanoi set up by the French colonial government in 1925. A French intellectual in the post World War I Europe, he advocated a humanism that believes, in the Vietnamese context, a uniqueness of an individual culture. For this belief, Inguimberty encouraged his Vietnamese students to learn only the techniques of Western painting but preserved their 'national character' in their works.
For Inguimberty, it was the tropical landscape and the natives that remained his constant source of Inspiration throughout his stay in Vietnam. He had completed many oeuvres depicting the beauty of the landscape of Indochina, and in many of these works, the canvas function very much like an arranged palette allowing the artist demonstrate his sensitivity in the use of colours while the figures feature less prominently. The present work, however, places the limelight on the nudes while the lush vegetation merely serves as an adorning background. The work belongs to a series of oeuvres which the artist did mainly in the mid thirties that gave more importance to the people and not the landscape. The sitters in these works are often oblivious to one another, seemingly choreographed to render the idealised, almost imagined, cultural richness and codified virtues and qualities of the indigenous people.
For Inguimberty, it was the tropical landscape and the natives that remained his constant source of Inspiration throughout his stay in Vietnam. He had completed many oeuvres depicting the beauty of the landscape of Indochina, and in many of these works, the canvas function very much like an arranged palette allowing the artist demonstrate his sensitivity in the use of colours while the figures feature less prominently. The present work, however, places the limelight on the nudes while the lush vegetation merely serves as an adorning background. The work belongs to a series of oeuvres which the artist did mainly in the mid thirties that gave more importance to the people and not the landscape. The sitters in these works are often oblivious to one another, seemingly choreographed to render the idealised, almost imagined, cultural richness and codified virtues and qualities of the indigenous people.