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Lot Essay
LE PHO, « LES PRIMEVÈRES », CIRCA 1970
During his long ‘Findlay’ period, from when he signed his contract with the prestigious American gallery in 1963 until his terrible car accident in 1991, which left him unable to paint, Le Pho produced numerous paintings in a style that was deliberately tailored to the tastes of his new American audience. This style was strongly recommended by Wally Findlay and his assistant Simone Karoff during their visits to the artist in France. The paintings were oil on canvas, in larger formats, with shimmering colours and most often gilded frames. Whilst the artist does not always escape a certain routine, he knows how to rise above it, as evidenced by this particularly successful work. This is evident in the meticulous overall composition and subtle observation, enhanced by vigorous brushwork and a warm colour palette.
People rightly speak of Le Pho's ‘Women’, from the young girl to the wife and mother, and even Madonna, and they are clearly one of the keys to his work.
But flowers are another fundamental element, and colour gradually becomes another essential foundation.
Les Primevères exemplifies this with grace and majesty.
In his early days as a painter, he worked with flat, subdued colours, either because of the nature of gouache or because he chose them deliberately for oil on canvas.
Influenced by Bonnard and Matisse, the latter had advised our artist to lighten his palette, Le Pho gradually immersed himself in a burst of colour. Colour emerges as an irresistible celebration, evoking warmth, immediacy and spontaneity that make one forget Hanoi’s solemn austerity.
Les Primevères is structured around the warm, vibrant, rustic colours of the bouquet, primarily red, orange and yellow, which are framed by various shades of blue. The darker, more intense red and blue tablecloth also enhances this contrast, drawing the eye to the bouquet.
Together, these elements create a bright, lively and warm atmosphere.
What better way to honour colour than with flowers?
Rather than a Faustian pact, there has been a paradigm shift, one that was necessary for Le Pho, Vietnam’s greatest painter of flowers, to fully embrace his contemplation and admiration. Affirming colour is essential to paying homage.
Here, Nature triumphs over Culture.
Note the concise title that Le Pho inscribed on the back of his work. This piece is actually about much more than just ‘Primroses’.
The depiction of pansies, nasturtiums and periwinkles also confirms the artist’s botanical knowledge. He told me that he only ever painted fresh flowers that had just been cut and arranged delicately in a vase.
A visual and olfactory sensation.
The privilege of the moment and the place. Nature captured within an enclosed space. A grace that must be seized, destined to fade inexorably, a fragrance doomed to vanish. Life slipping away.
Not a landscape, a subject the painter pays little attention to in his work. Not the vision of a distant observer, but that of an immediate participant.
He honours his flowers by placing them in a beautiful French planter, a classic 18th-century model in the style of the prestigious Rouen pottery, which influenced ceramic production throughout France. Its botanical design, featuring green accents, suggests it may have come from the potteries of La Rochelle or the Southwest...
On the right, we can see a litron cup that must have once held a delicate tea.
The table is covered with an Asian silk cloth, serving as a backdrop that evokes the painter’s transformation, between a rejected essentialism and a celebrated universalism.
Lower down, toward us, lies a book, a catalog, or a magazine, clearly just removed from the envelope that held it, with a cover featuring an easily recognizable contemporary work by Le Pho himself.
An unidentifiable object on the left balances the scene.
In the background is a setting that Le Pho enjoyed to reproduce at will since the 1930s: fences, a landscape, a sky, and in the distance, a somewhat indistinct scene that defies the notion of the artist’s confinement, and at the very top right, the blurred faces of women and children. Hope, despite everything.
A truly beautiful work…
Jean-François Hubert
Senior Expert, Art of Vietnam
During his long ‘Findlay’ period, from when he signed his contract with the prestigious American gallery in 1963 until his terrible car accident in 1991, which left him unable to paint, Le Pho produced numerous paintings in a style that was deliberately tailored to the tastes of his new American audience. This style was strongly recommended by Wally Findlay and his assistant Simone Karoff during their visits to the artist in France. The paintings were oil on canvas, in larger formats, with shimmering colours and most often gilded frames. Whilst the artist does not always escape a certain routine, he knows how to rise above it, as evidenced by this particularly successful work. This is evident in the meticulous overall composition and subtle observation, enhanced by vigorous brushwork and a warm colour palette.
People rightly speak of Le Pho's ‘Women’, from the young girl to the wife and mother, and even Madonna, and they are clearly one of the keys to his work.
But flowers are another fundamental element, and colour gradually becomes another essential foundation.
Les Primevères exemplifies this with grace and majesty.
In his early days as a painter, he worked with flat, subdued colours, either because of the nature of gouache or because he chose them deliberately for oil on canvas.
Influenced by Bonnard and Matisse, the latter had advised our artist to lighten his palette, Le Pho gradually immersed himself in a burst of colour. Colour emerges as an irresistible celebration, evoking warmth, immediacy and spontaneity that make one forget Hanoi’s solemn austerity.
Les Primevères is structured around the warm, vibrant, rustic colours of the bouquet, primarily red, orange and yellow, which are framed by various shades of blue. The darker, more intense red and blue tablecloth also enhances this contrast, drawing the eye to the bouquet.
Together, these elements create a bright, lively and warm atmosphere.
What better way to honour colour than with flowers?
Rather than a Faustian pact, there has been a paradigm shift, one that was necessary for Le Pho, Vietnam’s greatest painter of flowers, to fully embrace his contemplation and admiration. Affirming colour is essential to paying homage.
Here, Nature triumphs over Culture.
Note the concise title that Le Pho inscribed on the back of his work. This piece is actually about much more than just ‘Primroses’.
The depiction of pansies, nasturtiums and periwinkles also confirms the artist’s botanical knowledge. He told me that he only ever painted fresh flowers that had just been cut and arranged delicately in a vase.
A visual and olfactory sensation.
The privilege of the moment and the place. Nature captured within an enclosed space. A grace that must be seized, destined to fade inexorably, a fragrance doomed to vanish. Life slipping away.
Not a landscape, a subject the painter pays little attention to in his work. Not the vision of a distant observer, but that of an immediate participant.
He honours his flowers by placing them in a beautiful French planter, a classic 18th-century model in the style of the prestigious Rouen pottery, which influenced ceramic production throughout France. Its botanical design, featuring green accents, suggests it may have come from the potteries of La Rochelle or the Southwest...
On the right, we can see a litron cup that must have once held a delicate tea.
The table is covered with an Asian silk cloth, serving as a backdrop that evokes the painter’s transformation, between a rejected essentialism and a celebrated universalism.
Lower down, toward us, lies a book, a catalog, or a magazine, clearly just removed from the envelope that held it, with a cover featuring an easily recognizable contemporary work by Le Pho himself.
An unidentifiable object on the left balances the scene.
In the background is a setting that Le Pho enjoyed to reproduce at will since the 1930s: fences, a landscape, a sky, and in the distance, a somewhat indistinct scene that defies the notion of the artist’s confinement, and at the very top right, the blurred faces of women and children. Hope, despite everything.
A truly beautiful work…
Jean-François Hubert
Senior Expert, Art of Vietnam