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Lot Essay
This exquisite work by Le Pho exemplifies the artist's ability to evoke feelings of soft and romantic oriental aesthetics while executing in a predominantly classical western style. The oriental feel of the work is obvious in the subject matter, a Vietnamese mother with her children in the garden, and in their dress and furniture, but it is also evident in the flat 2 dimensional quality of the work. We do not get the sense of great depth, but rather everything is presented on one flat plain. As well, the figures are outlined in a manner similar to Chinese silk painting.
The formal western training can be seen in his painting technique, which is reminiscent of the light and feathered brushstrokes of the Impressionists. Le Pho also uses Western classical elements in his composition - a triangular configuration of the son, the mother and the pot of flowers - most likely borrowed from the Renaissance artists, whose works he encountered in his travels throughout Europe.
"From 1950 onwards, Le Pho's palette becomes lighter. The painter adopts the manner of the sketch, or rather of the outline. His pictures are 'boneless'. They have no linear scaffolding. Contact with Bonnard's work played a decisive role in the evolution of the artist. Le Pho began to paint in oil on canvas. He achieved a harmonious synthesis between Chinese painting and Impressionism, or rather Post-Impressionism. If he retains his nostalgia for the country of a thousand flowers, if his figures are modeled from the same stuff as the air which envelopes them and blurs their outlines, if he devotes himself to translating light, that soul of all painting, he never ceases to be himself." (Waldemar George in "Le Pho: The 'Divine Painter'", le-pho, Wally Findlay Galleries International, Inc. United States, p.4.)
The formal western training can be seen in his painting technique, which is reminiscent of the light and feathered brushstrokes of the Impressionists. Le Pho also uses Western classical elements in his composition - a triangular configuration of the son, the mother and the pot of flowers - most likely borrowed from the Renaissance artists, whose works he encountered in his travels throughout Europe.
"From 1950 onwards, Le Pho's palette becomes lighter. The painter adopts the manner of the sketch, or rather of the outline. His pictures are 'boneless'. They have no linear scaffolding. Contact with Bonnard's work played a decisive role in the evolution of the artist. Le Pho began to paint in oil on canvas. He achieved a harmonious synthesis between Chinese painting and Impressionism, or rather Post-Impressionism. If he retains his nostalgia for the country of a thousand flowers, if his figures are modeled from the same stuff as the air which envelopes them and blurs their outlines, if he devotes himself to translating light, that soul of all painting, he never ceases to be himself." (Waldemar George in "Le Pho: The 'Divine Painter'", le-pho, Wally Findlay Galleries International, Inc. United States, p.4.)