Painting by Le Thi Luu sells for more than 500,000 USD

The number is eight times higher than the original prediction, giving Mère et enfant (Mother and child) became the highest auctioned work in the session Indochineincluding 49 modern paintings, old magazines of painters, teachers of Indochina Fine Arts College.

According to Sotheby’s, the work with ink and color on silk, was made around the 1960s. The center of the picture is the image of a mother holding her baby, dotted with vases of flowers. The mother wears a white silk dress with a blue top, while the baby wears a striking orange color.

On the auction house’s website, it reads: “This touching and intimate silk painting represents Le Thi Luu’s style. The work is full of love between mother and child.”

The work is said to convey the artist’s feelings for his family and homeland of Vietnam, while living in France. Le Thi Luu and her husband moved to France to settle in 1940.

Art researcher Ngo Kim Khoi said that the painting is worthy of this price, even higher in the future. “The artist does not use primitive colors but delicately blends them, giving an overall pastel color painting that shows the gentleness of Le Thi Luu”, he said.

Le Thi Luu was born in 1911 in Tho Block, Bac Ninh, and started pursuing the path of painting at the age of 14. She was admitted to Indochina Fine Arts College in 1927, at the age of 16, the school’s first female painter. In 1930, she exhibited two oil paintings in the school’s first joint exhibition: Mr. Hai’s portrait and Banana garden children. In 1932, she graduated valedictorian. She taught at Bao Ho (Grapefruit), Female Pedagogical School (Hang Bai), Dang Ten (Ecole dentellière), Hong Bang (private).

In the early 1940s, Le Thi Luu went to Paris, France with her husband Ngo The Tan and some artists such as Mai Trung Thu, Le Pho, Vu Cao Dam. In the 1950s, Le Thi Luu immersed herself in Vietnamese cultural roots with a series of ink and pigment works on silk. The artist’s favorite subject is Vietnamese women and children with radiant faces, realistically expressed. She is famous for her ability to combine colors, light, and delicate strokes, leading viewers to a peaceful, soft and luxurious space.

Her paintings are shown in many galleries in Paris. Since 1962, Le Thi Luu has taught at the Lycée Corot, Lycée Rodin Paris and Lycée d’Orsay schools. Since 1971, she retired and moved to the South of France. She passed away in 1988.

During his lifetime, painter Nguyen Nam Son – co-founder of the Indochina Fine Arts College, engaged in teaching Graphics and Decoration subjects – once said that Le Thi Luu’s name was very special, because it included three types of fruit bearing fruit. Sweet aroma and color: pear, market and pomegranate.

Indochine is an online session dedicated to Vietnamese Fine Arts in the 20th century, including 49 works, in the genres of paintings, lacquers, sculptures… by the first graduates of the Eastern College of Fine Arts. Positive. The match took place from April 14 to 21 on Sotheby’s website with paintings of many famous faces such as Nguyen Nam Son, Vu Cao Dam, Mai Trung Thu, Le Pho…

Oil painting on canvas Flower sellers by Hoan Kiem Lake Composed in 1936, signed Phung Fu, ranked second with the price of more than 191 thousand USD (more than 4.3 billion VND). Followed by the lacquer painting on the wooden board Landscape of the North of Vietnam from Indochina Fine Arts College (1925-1945) with 102 thousand USD (nearly 2.4 billion VND), oil painting Poet of Vu Cao Dam at 52 thousand USD (nearly 1.2 billion dong). Work Cranes and fish of Nguyen Nam Son sold for 21.8 thousand USD (more than 500 million dong). The total amount collected in the match was 1,197,969 USD (27.5 billion VND).

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