Mai Trung Thu’s painting “Le Concert” (The Concert) of five women playing music fetched the highest price in an auction held in the French capital Paris Tuesday.
The “Hommage à l’Art Moderne Vietnamien” (Tribute To Modern Vietnamese Art) auction was held to celebrate the 100th anniversary this year of the Indochina College of Fine Arts (now the Vietnam University of Fine Arts). The event was hosted by independent auction house Aguttes.
“Le Concert” attracted great interest from international collectors and sold for 1.81 million euros (US$2.11 million).
Thu created the ink-and-color-on-silk work in 1978 portraying three women in ao dai playing a bamboo flute, dan tranh (plucked zither) and dan ty ba (pipa) and two others singing and moving their hands to the music.
The painting uses bright colors.
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The painting “Le Concert” (The Concert) by Mai Trung Thu. Photo courtesy of Aguttes |
Several of Thu’s paintings have sold for millions of dollars.
In 2021 his “Chan Dung Co Phuong” (Portrait of Miss Phuong) fetched $3.1 million at an auction held by Sotheby’s, the highest by any Vietnamese painting.
Since 2023 the global economic downturn has affected the value of Vietnamese art internationally, including Thu’s works.
Thu (1906-1980) was a key figure in early modern Vietnamese art and a graduate of the first class of the Indochina College of Fine Arts (1925-1930).
He was known as one of four European masters of Vietnamese painting alongside Le Pho, Vu Cao Dam and Le Thi Luu.
He spent most of his life in France, creating silk paintings of women, children and daily life scenes with an East Asian perspective.
Aguttes’ auction featured 27 works by artists including Pho and Dam and French painter Alix Ayme, who contributed to developing modern Indochinese art through lacquer painting.
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Le Pho’s “La femme nue” (Nude Woman), created using ink and color on silk, with the artist’s signature in the upper left corner circa 1942. Photo courtesy of Agutte |
Other highlights included Le Pho’s “La femme nue” (Nude Woman), which sold for 1.37 million euros (US$1.61 million), and “Paysage du Tonkin, Hanoi” (Landscape of Tonkin, Hanoi) at 1.23 million euros (US$1.4 million).
A representative of the Le Auction House said the prices reflect the enduring appeal of Indochinese art, especially silk and lacquer paintings.
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