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VISIONS OF VIETNAM: THE MELCHIOR DEJOUANY COLLECTION
VU CAO DAM (1908-2000)
Le départ (The Departure)
Details
VU CAO DAM (1908-2000)
Le départ (The Departure)
signed, inscribed and dated ‘vu cao dam Vence 53’ (lower left)
mixed media on panel
54.7 x 46 cm. (21 1⁄2 x 18 1⁄8 in.)
Executed in 1953
Le départ (The Departure)
signed, inscribed and dated ‘vu cao dam Vence 53’ (lower left)
mixed media on panel
54.7 x 46 cm. (21 1⁄2 x 18 1⁄8 in.)
Executed in 1953
Provenance
Private collection, France
Thence by descent to the previous owner
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Thence by descent to the previous owner
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Literature
K. Pho, ‘Jean-François Hubert’, Argument, July/August/September 2024 (illustrated, p. 40).
Exhibited
Paris, Christie's, The Phoenix Glue and the Broken Silk Thread - Important Vietnamese Artworks from the Melchior Dejouany Collection, 8 June - 13 June 2024.
Further details
VU CAO DAM, "THE DEPARTURE", 1953,
OR THE TRAGEDY OF THE PRESENT TIMES
Living in France since 1931, Vu Cao Dam (1908-2000), who never returned to Vietnam, was a subtle advocate of Vietnamese culture.
The conquest of otherness—the cornerstone of his life—went hand in hand, for a time, with the defense of his native country’s independence, encouraged by the fascination he felt for Ho Chi Minh during the latter’s visit to Paris in 1946.
The present picture is underpinned by a sense of both hope and foreboding.
In 1953, the artist's hope is twofold: To rejuvenate in Vence after stays in Paris, Vanves, and Béziers, and the hope for his homeland, Vietnam, where everyone believes that after seven years of painful war, independence must be granted so that the warring parties can achieve a peace that does not humiliate anyone.
But disillusionment, which he already felt looming, would soon set in. This disillusionment was also twofold, as he realized that while his ancestral world was crumbling, he no longer held certainty that the new one would be an improvement over the old. With his lucid passion, Vu Cao Dam presents us with a work that encapsulates this moment of deconstruction.
Six figures are presented in four distinct scenes. In an almost stormy atmosphere, two women are presented in the foreground at the bottom right. Their hairstyles and dresses, unlike their faces, do not typically correspond to those of Vietnamese women. A man, seen from behind, wears traditional Vietnamese attire, while on the left, a horseman is visible further away. Finally, two individuals stand in the background on the right, resembling bearers of offerings. The last three are obviously Vietnamese.
The horse exudes strength, unlike the docile or passive model depicted in the artist’s paintings from previous years. The tree cannot be attributed to any species, while the characters of Kim-Vân-Kiêu, Kieu, and Vân at the bottom right, with Kim on horseback, appear to be taken up and secularized. All three have departed from the narrative flow of the classic Vietnamese literature to embody the immediate history. The man in traditional attire, turning his back, seems to salute and encourage the rider, who is departing for war. Can these women and men from the past—actors of the year 1953—understand that the fight for independence implies a dislocation of their world that the victors will call "feudal"? The painter, from our point of observation, leads us towards the background of the painting in a gradual stylistic Vietnamization.
A salute like a farewell, a departure like a quest, a presence like a mirage. It’s all there in this work, with its innovative use of Caparol paint, characteristic of the artist’s pictorial experiments in Vence.
Jean-François Hubert
Senior Expert, Art of Vietnam
OR THE TRAGEDY OF THE PRESENT TIMES
Living in France since 1931, Vu Cao Dam (1908-2000), who never returned to Vietnam, was a subtle advocate of Vietnamese culture.
The conquest of otherness—the cornerstone of his life—went hand in hand, for a time, with the defense of his native country’s independence, encouraged by the fascination he felt for Ho Chi Minh during the latter’s visit to Paris in 1946.
The present picture is underpinned by a sense of both hope and foreboding.
In 1953, the artist's hope is twofold: To rejuvenate in Vence after stays in Paris, Vanves, and Béziers, and the hope for his homeland, Vietnam, where everyone believes that after seven years of painful war, independence must be granted so that the warring parties can achieve a peace that does not humiliate anyone.
But disillusionment, which he already felt looming, would soon set in. This disillusionment was also twofold, as he realized that while his ancestral world was crumbling, he no longer held certainty that the new one would be an improvement over the old. With his lucid passion, Vu Cao Dam presents us with a work that encapsulates this moment of deconstruction.
Six figures are presented in four distinct scenes. In an almost stormy atmosphere, two women are presented in the foreground at the bottom right. Their hairstyles and dresses, unlike their faces, do not typically correspond to those of Vietnamese women. A man, seen from behind, wears traditional Vietnamese attire, while on the left, a horseman is visible further away. Finally, two individuals stand in the background on the right, resembling bearers of offerings. The last three are obviously Vietnamese.
The horse exudes strength, unlike the docile or passive model depicted in the artist’s paintings from previous years. The tree cannot be attributed to any species, while the characters of Kim-Vân-Kiêu, Kieu, and Vân at the bottom right, with Kim on horseback, appear to be taken up and secularized. All three have departed from the narrative flow of the classic Vietnamese literature to embody the immediate history. The man in traditional attire, turning his back, seems to salute and encourage the rider, who is departing for war. Can these women and men from the past—actors of the year 1953—understand that the fight for independence implies a dislocation of their world that the victors will call "feudal"? The painter, from our point of observation, leads us towards the background of the painting in a gradual stylistic Vietnamization.
A salute like a farewell, a departure like a quest, a presence like a mirage. It’s all there in this work, with its innovative use of Caparol paint, characteristic of the artist’s pictorial experiments in Vence.
Jean-François Hubert
Senior Expert, Art of Vietnam
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Ziwei Yi
Specialist, Head of 20th Century Day Sale