According to the statistics Summarizing the records of Vietnamese painting price list at the end of 2022 by Ace Lê (thank you for a very useful summary), 19 works of Vietnamese artists have reached the million-dollar mark. Lê Phổ alone has 7 paintings.
Currently, Lê Phổ is the only Vietnamese painter to achieve such records as:
– He is the first Vietnamese artist whose painting price has reached the million-dollar mark. The painting ‘Family life’, 1937-1939, ink and gouache on silk, dimensions 82×66 cm.
– He has the most million-dollar works – 7 paintings (silk and oil).
– Lê Phổ’s highest-priced painting is currently $2.29 million ‘Figures in a garden’, 1973, oil on canvas on wood, dimensions 175×209.5 cm. This painting is currently ranked second on the chart, just behind the highest-priced painting, $3.11 million ‘Portrait de Mademoiselle Phuong’ by Mai Trung Thứ, 1930, oil on canvas, dimensions 135.5×80 cm.
In 2020 at Aguttes, Lê Phổ’s painting ‘Jeune fille aux pivoines’ circa 1945, ink and color on silk, 91×71 cm, has reached $1.36 million.
Thus, the painting ‘Jeune fille aux pivoines’ is the first painting by Lê Phổ to reach the price of 1 million dollars at Aguttes. There is also the painting ‘Paysage aux jonques’, Phạm Hậu, circa 1950, lacquer, 105.6×200 cm reaching $1 million at Aguttes in 2021.
Viet Art View brings a little information to readers so that we can visualize the commercial position of the current price for Lê Phổ paintings in the art market. In the context of a difficult market with lots of changes, real estate is illiquid, stock exchange is almost red… but art still has liquidity. Certainly, it is somewhat quieter than before, but the prices have never stopped increasing.
For art collectors with liquidity, this is a good time to buy valuable works at good prices. Abroad, there are tycoons who consider art as an investment channel at a high level of beneficiary. They buy paintings when the market is soft and sell them when prices are high.
Lot 6 – LÊ PHỔ (1907-2001)
Méditation, circa 1940. Ink and colors on silk. 27,7 × 24,2 cm.
PROVENANCE
1942-1944, Algiers, Pasteur Art Gallery, Mai Thu Exhibition, Le Pho, Vu Cao Dam, Indo-Chinese Paintings. Private collection, Alger (acquired from the previous one). Private collection, South-East of France (by descent from the previous one at the end of the XXth century).
Estimate: 100 000 – 200 000 €
In the auction on March 6, 2023 at Aguttes, the painting ‘Méditation’ by Lê Phổ with a starting price of 100-200k EUR. ‘Méditation’ was once exhibited at the Pasteur Art gallery in Alger (Algiers) in the years 1942-1944.
The painting depicts a Vietnamese landscape with a characteristic blue of mountains and a Vietnamese woman with an elegant face and posture in a white áo dài; a dark blue shawl draped loosely over her shoulders. Her face was sad, her eyes were looking down, indifferently looking at the white flower in the vase. The anxious, distant and empty mood of the woman is probably Lê Phổ’s. Because in 1937, Lê Phổ decided to leave Vietnam to live and work in France. After a few years, France and Europe were engulfed in World War II, Lê Phổ and many other artists in France chose Algiers, a country in North Africa as a place to stay. Perhaps he missed his homeland Vietnam, remembered what was dear to him during his 20 years of living in the motherland. He had just come to France, now had to escape the war in a faraway African country…
Like Mai Trung Thứ and Vũ Cao Đàm, this is the period when they created emotional, nostalgic paintings with bold romantic, historical, and national characters. The paintings of this period are much loved and sought after by art-savvy collectors.
This is a beautiful painting by Lê Phổ, although not the best of his compositions. But the beauty of the image of a Vietnamese woman in the painting is typical of Lê Phổ’s painting language. Just glance at the painting, the emotions of viewers have surged, wanting the eyes to stop and look at it longer.
In this world, anything that creates emotions is the best.
Hopefully the painting will get a high price and be returned home in major collections.
Written by Viet Art View
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