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Lot Essay
Le Pho's Une mere et ses 3 enfants is the quintessential pastoral portrait; whilst allegorical portraits were favoured by many of the artist's peers as a subject matter, Le Pho's version has won many admirers, much to the virtue of the artist's ingenious ability to depict his sitters sensitively and emotively.
Much has been discussed of Le Pho's penchant for the depiction of Mother and Child or the portrayal of Madonna after the artist's first European visit in 1931. Traveling to Paris in 1931 as the assistant to the director of the Hanoi Ecole de Beaux Arts, Victor Tardieu , the artist and a group of fellow school mates helped his teacher to design and to build the Vietnamese Pavilion for the Exposition Coloniale which successfully charmed the Parisian audience. Le Pho, after the assignment, very wisely took the opportunity to visit Italy, Germany and Belgium where he was inevitably exposed to the Classical and Renaissance works of European masters and more particularly drawn to the enigmatic force of the religious works in cathedrals and museums. Indeed, the lingering effect of the trip would prove to be consequential and with the benefit of hindsight, one knows that it would last for a life time.
A glance at the present composition reveals an affinity between the artist and the European masters, most notably with the works of Botticelli (1444-1510); the composition is classical with a triangle element that guides the gaze of a viewer, firstly to the mother and presumably the youngest child in the composition as she holds him in her arms and then focus on the other 2 children each at her sides hence balancing the composition harmoniously. Just like the Renaissance masters, the hues of the skin tones are softened to accentuate the corpulence of the subjects not in the way to portray their stoutness for they are not, but rather to show the smoothness and therefore the beauty of their complexion. Therein lies a deviation from the Renaissance masters, if the Renaissance masters, at times have sought to tacitly present the subjects with a hinted erotic intensity in their oeuvres, Le Pho's subjects are usually quite the opposite, it is of wholesome beauty that only has the aspiration of the purest and the most innocent. If the Christian Madonna and Child is the original prototype of Le Pho's recurring Maternite works, the Vietnamese artist has certainly imbued the work with a greater sense of secular affection albeit a tinge of piousness than his original source of religious genre.
In 1937 Le Pho returned from Vietnam to settle permanently in France. From 1937 up to 1943 he practiced an art which was Oriental in expression, and fused with his Western training. The art critic Waldemar George described the silk paintings of Le Pho from this period "His touch is delicate, sensitive and vibrant, he brings to light the inwardness of things in works that suggest moral calm and ideal peace ... when he cannot express himself verbally, Le Pho resorts to colours and lines."
The present lot is a good representational work from this period where the incorporation of Oriental and Occidental techniques are more apparent than his later works in oil which were unmistakably impressionistic. The subjects of the present work are depicted with an unabashed sentiment of elegance and softness that the artist subtly suggests with the fragility of the garment, which is in turn enhanced by the texture of the medium which is silk. The oriental aesthetics also applies to the apparent flatten surface which seemingly devoid the work of any depth and perspective and in which the refined and sensitive lines of Vietnamese silk painting take precedence in creating a lively image of the family, enlivened by bright and pleasant hues.
It has been suggested that the present composition which depicts the mother and her 3 children are allegorical of Mother Vietnam, the country and her 3 regions of North, South and Central Vietnam.
For a Vietnamese settling in a foreign land, Le Pho retained a strong affection to his home country and in many ways his works are always a rumination of all things Vietnamese.
Much has been discussed of Le Pho's penchant for the depiction of Mother and Child or the portrayal of Madonna after the artist's first European visit in 1931. Traveling to Paris in 1931 as the assistant to the director of the Hanoi Ecole de Beaux Arts, Victor Tardieu , the artist and a group of fellow school mates helped his teacher to design and to build the Vietnamese Pavilion for the Exposition Coloniale which successfully charmed the Parisian audience. Le Pho, after the assignment, very wisely took the opportunity to visit Italy, Germany and Belgium where he was inevitably exposed to the Classical and Renaissance works of European masters and more particularly drawn to the enigmatic force of the religious works in cathedrals and museums. Indeed, the lingering effect of the trip would prove to be consequential and with the benefit of hindsight, one knows that it would last for a life time.
A glance at the present composition reveals an affinity between the artist and the European masters, most notably with the works of Botticelli (1444-1510); the composition is classical with a triangle element that guides the gaze of a viewer, firstly to the mother and presumably the youngest child in the composition as she holds him in her arms and then focus on the other 2 children each at her sides hence balancing the composition harmoniously. Just like the Renaissance masters, the hues of the skin tones are softened to accentuate the corpulence of the subjects not in the way to portray their stoutness for they are not, but rather to show the smoothness and therefore the beauty of their complexion. Therein lies a deviation from the Renaissance masters, if the Renaissance masters, at times have sought to tacitly present the subjects with a hinted erotic intensity in their oeuvres, Le Pho's subjects are usually quite the opposite, it is of wholesome beauty that only has the aspiration of the purest and the most innocent. If the Christian Madonna and Child is the original prototype of Le Pho's recurring Maternite works, the Vietnamese artist has certainly imbued the work with a greater sense of secular affection albeit a tinge of piousness than his original source of religious genre.
In 1937 Le Pho returned from Vietnam to settle permanently in France. From 1937 up to 1943 he practiced an art which was Oriental in expression, and fused with his Western training. The art critic Waldemar George described the silk paintings of Le Pho from this period "His touch is delicate, sensitive and vibrant, he brings to light the inwardness of things in works that suggest moral calm and ideal peace ... when he cannot express himself verbally, Le Pho resorts to colours and lines."
The present lot is a good representational work from this period where the incorporation of Oriental and Occidental techniques are more apparent than his later works in oil which were unmistakably impressionistic. The subjects of the present work are depicted with an unabashed sentiment of elegance and softness that the artist subtly suggests with the fragility of the garment, which is in turn enhanced by the texture of the medium which is silk. The oriental aesthetics also applies to the apparent flatten surface which seemingly devoid the work of any depth and perspective and in which the refined and sensitive lines of Vietnamese silk painting take precedence in creating a lively image of the family, enlivened by bright and pleasant hues.
It has been suggested that the present composition which depicts the mother and her 3 children are allegorical of Mother Vietnam, the country and her 3 regions of North, South and Central Vietnam.
For a Vietnamese settling in a foreign land, Le Pho retained a strong affection to his home country and in many ways his works are always a rumination of all things Vietnamese.