Le Pho (1907 – 2001). Vietnamese Lady. 1938. Silk. 28,5×23,5cm
For an art collector or art dealer, a painting that is loved, sought after, looked for… they must spend a lot of money, to bid, to battle then take it home, to put it in their collection (or for sale)… obviously it is a beautiful painting, worth the money.
The meaning of the word ‘beautiful’ is very broad. With the theme of women, ‘pretty, gentle, sweet, elegant, dignified…’, are reserved for the word ‘beautiful’, won a lot of sympathy and affection.
On August 28, 2022, at Sotheby’s Singapore, in an online aution, the painting ‘Vietnamese Lady’, silk, 28.5×23.5 cm, created around 1938 by painter Le Pho, starting price from 620k- 1 million SGD; will it exceed the threshold of 1 million USD, equivalent to about 23.7 billion VND? Viet Art View think it’s difficult. Difficult to follow the positive thinking of some dealers.
– Firstly: Small dimension, can’t be too expensive if nothing special
– Second: The subject has nothing strange and groundbreaking to amaze (in every sense) compared to Le Pho’s other ‘female portraits’ work.
– Third: What is shown on the surface is the most important. The ‘things and things’ that make up the artist’s name and value are what’s on the surface of the painting. That is how to shape, color, theme, style… to make a difference.
The painting ‘Vietnamese Lady’ depicts a girl with the image of ‘white shirt, white hair scarf, white scarf around the neck’, sitting on a chair with typical Indochina style design in the early 20th century in Hanoi; on the chair is the border of the scarf with the color (green, red) characteristic of Le Pho (in color)… that’s all.
Does this girl have the characteristics of the ‘Vietnamese Lady’ image? Yes, but not necessarily…
The focus of the painting is ‘face’. The girl’s face in the picture does not cause much sympathy for the viewer. Portrait paintings often cause love and nostalgia from viewers in the ‘face, color’ part, which we often call ‘charisma’, but in this painting, the girl’s ‘charisma’ causes the feeling of looking something ‘unreal, a bit hard, the lips are not suitable…’ which, according to the comment of one or two collectors (who already own million- USD paintings), it looks ‘disliked’.
And certainly when asking ‘Do you bid?’ then they all shook their heads ‘[I] don’t bid if it’s cheap, let alone that expensive’.
But the auctions have unexpected changes and breakthroughs. Sometimes, ‘thought it was not expensive, it was incredibly expensive’ and ‘thought it was expensive, it turned out to be very soft and very smooth’.
It all depends on the level of understanding, intoxication… and ‘budget’ of the player.
As for whether this painting is going to Vietnam or not, it is quite certain. Because only Vietnamese buy what belongs to Vietnam ‘more than the value’…
And at what price, we have to wait until August 28, 2022…
By Viet Art View
Copyrights belong to Viet Art View
