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| Image | Sale date | Auction house | Location | Sale name | Lot No. | Estimate | Price Sold | Condition | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dec 11, 2020 | Est-Ouest Auctions | Tokyo | 2020 HONG KONG - TOKYO JOINT AUCTION | 242 | $****** - ****** | L'ALPHABET / THE ALPHABET |
paintings
29.5 x 38 cm (11.61 x 14.96 in)
ink and gouache on silk
signed, dated and stamped on the upper right "MAI THU 五十五年 " signed, titled and dated in pencil on the reverse "MT L'ALPHABET 1955"
private collection, France
This work is a precious silk painting by Mai Thu in 1955, who is the artist who representing the Ecole Franco-Vietnamese. Mai Thu focused on daily life in Vietnam in his original style that combines traditional Vietnamese painting techniques with the sensibilities cultivated in Paris. Among his works, children and women with Áo dài are the most important motifs. Mai Thu illustrates a warm and lovely scene of two children who are studying homework together beside the table. The children in the painting have lively and innocent posture, the boy props on his elbow while the girl scratches her head, which vividly reflect the nostalgic scene of the children studying their homework together. There are not only stationery items on the table, but also items full of life such as fans and snacks, which also remind people of childhood memories. Distinguished for his precise brushwork, Mai Thu often employs fine outlines to delineate the soft curves of his stylized figures, which, akin to French post-Impressionists such as Matisse, allow the faces of the female subjects to take on a seemingly volumetric appearance. To paint on silk, some artists choose to dilute their pigments with tea to produce a translucent quality to the ink. The muted color palette coupled with monochromatic tones presents a dream-like quality to the painting, enunciating a calm atmosphere that allows the audiences to further admire the children in their delicate moment. Born in 1906 in Vietnam, Mai Trung Thu, known as Mai-Thu, studied at the French Lycée in Hanoi before joining the School of Fine Arts' first year. He was a professor of drawing from 1931 to 1937 in Hue, and participated in the 1937 International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. This trip was decisive for him and he decided to settle in France. Although he exhibited at the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Indépendants in Paris as well as in various galleries, it was meeting Jean-François Apesteguy in the late 1950s that marked a turning point in his career as a painter and led him to fame. Mai Thu found delight in incorporating Vietnamese subject matter and symbolism into his art. The folk-like themes of his dainty images of women, children and idealized landscapes were often a celebration of rural Vietnam that captured a sense of innocence and nostalgia for the past. By stylistically blending aesthetic traditions from Vietnamese paintings and the ‘French Salon' style, Mai Thu remains one of the major paragons of the ‘Ecole Franco-Vietnamese' today and is known particularly for capturing the tender moments of everyday life with his oeuvre of classic and graceful Vietnamese figures
