Auction [52] Asian Painters
China and Vietnam

Tiếng Việt

This 52^nd auction by the department, dedicated to Asian Modern Art, reflects the support of Charlotte Aguttes-Reynier, an expert in the work of Vietnamese and Chinese artists. Indeed, these generations deserve greater recognition: their rediscovery in recent years is part of a growing appreciation of Asian modern art, which is attracting increasing interest from both collectors and institutions.

Woman and Child by Vũ Cao Đàm: An Exclusive Account of the Artist's First Solo Exhibition at the Van Ryck Gallery

A recent graduate, Vũ Cao Đàm arrived in France in 1931 and began exhibiting his work at art salons and group exhibitions. Noticed by art critics from his earliest years, he received glowing reviews when he held his first solo exhibition in 1946 at the Van Ryck Gallery in Paris.

Jeanine Auboyer, an associate at the Guimet Museum, wrote at the time:

"Vũ Cao Đàm’s personality is revealed in his decorative compositions, whose typical themes depict figures against a landscape backdrop, in the manner of his beloved Primitives. Here he breaks free from overly rigid traditions, effortlessly creating arabesques and pleasing compositions, and managing to balance the masses of his groupings with a surprising mastery that reveals no trace of effort. And, while the stylization of his figures curiously evokes that of Persian miniatures, his landscapes borrow their perspective and composition from Europe.
The success of the synthesis achieved by Vũ Cao Đàm is indisputable proof of his talent; we know, thanks to the sincerity of his artistic exploration, that it will only continue to grow.¹"

Acquired during this exhibition and kept in the family ever since, this work is now appearing on the market after 80 years in private hands.

1Jeannine Auboyer, “Vũ Cao Đàm,” France Illustration-Le Monde illustré, special issue on Indochina, No. 190, June 4, 1949, reprinted.

Related works:

An Exceptional Cast of Jeune fille annamite by Vũ Cao Đàm, Carefully Preserved by the Descendants of Paul Reynaud

This sculpture, entitled Jeune fille annamite, is one of the very rare known casts of this model produced in the early 1930s. The few examples recorded to date are held in major international collections, both in museums and in the private collections of prominent collectors.

Long held in private hands, the work presented here was shown to the public for the first time during the 2024–2025 exhibition devoted to the three great Vietnamese masters at the Musée Cernuschi. When the exhibition was extended, the museum's curators selected this work to take the place of the version from the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, which was then on loan to the National Gallery Singapore for the exhibition City of Others.

The present example is distinguished by its remarkable brown patina with subtle green nuances. Preserved by the descendants of Paul Reynaud and regarded as the family's most treasured piece, it is the only example currently known to remain in private hands in Europe.

Jeune Femme and Cerisiers du Japon en fleur by Vũ Cao Đàm: an ode to youth and femininity

This delicate silk piece is representative of the early period of Vũ Cao Đàm's body of work. Given the diversity of the artist’s practice—which focused almost exclusively on sculpture until the early 1940s—the rarity of his early silk works is particularly prized and sought after by collectors.

The background of cherry blossoms (hoa anh đào) evokes symbolism borrowed from Japan: the fleeting bloom as a metaphor for beauty and youth, and their fragility. In Vietnam, these trees remain rare; they are found only in the cool highlands of Đà Lạt or Sa Pa, having been introduced through trade with the Land of the Rising Sun. Vũ Cao Đàm, who most often paints his models against a solid-color background, allows himself here a floral landscape where the model’s rosy cheeks and delicate mouth echo the hues of the petals, highlighting her femininity and elegance. This technical exercise, with its more demanding composition, requires the artist to pay particular attention to perspective and lighting.

Vũ Cao Đàm’s Passion for Portraiture: A Legacy of Lessons Learned in Vietnam and Paris

Having been awarded a scholarship upon completing his studies at the École des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine, Vũ Cao Đàm arrived in Paris in December 1931. He immediately enrolled at the École du Louvre, where he took classes from 1932 to 1935. It was there that he first encountered original works from a portrait tradition whose roots date back to antiquity, such as L’Européenne (dated 100–150 CE and housed at the Louvre Museum), and deepened his knowledge of the Italian Renaissance, particularly of masters such as Palma Vecchio, who was active in the first quarter of the 16th century.

Several portraits dating from 1935 depict young women using a tight framing focused on their tilted faces, revealing only the hint of a shoulder. No jewelry or adornments grace the model, whose elegance rests entirely on the delicacy of the line and the softness of the modeling. This extreme simplicity highlights the chromatic exploration, based on harmonies of shades of gray, blue, and almond green. This meticulous work confirms Jeannine Auboyer’s observations from the last century, which pinpointed the artist’s uniqueness: “It is in his choice of colors that Vu Cao Dam perhaps reveals his most personal side.”²

² Jeannine Auboyer, “An Indochinese Painter: Vũ Cao Đàm,” France Illustration, no. 34, May 25, 1946, p. 591

Mai Trung Thứ,The Remarkable Collection of a Senior French Official, Friend and Patron of the Artist

This collection is the result of a generous and spontaneous act of patronage. While stationed in Indochina before 1940, Reserve Captain L. developed a close friendship with the painter Mai Trung Thứ. In 1943, after several years of service in the region, he returned to France, deeply marked by his experiences in Hanoi and Saigon. Back in Paris, he renewed his friendship with Mai Thứ and resolved to support the artist, who, despite having settled in France seven years earlier after graduating from the Hanoi School of Fine Arts, was still struggling to make a living from his work.

The young officer commissioned an important group of silk paintings, together with a portrait of himself. Through these commissions, he encouraged the little-known artist, then living far from his homeland, to continue painting and enrich his body of work. Following the remarkable success of Romance au clair de lune, the first silk painting from this collection to be offered by Aguttes, which sold for over €500,000 in 2022, the remainder of this exceptional ensemble is now being unveiled for the first time.

Mai Trung Thứ,The Mysterious Model from Hué

“Many of his works, created while he was teaching drawing in Hué, depict the same model—a very beautiful young woman with a serious expression whom he would come to fall in love with, Mademoiselle Phuong.”

As early as 1931, thanks to the efforts of Victor Tardieu—who exhibited his work at the magnificent Colonial Exhibition held in Vincennes—Mai Trung Thứ began to make a name for himself in France. In the years that followed, after returning to Indochina, he submitted his works to various exhibitions in Paris, Rome, Hué, and Hanoi. Many of his works, created while he was teaching drawing in Hué, depict the same model—a beautiful young woman with a serene, dignified expression whom he would come to fall in love with, Mademoiselle Phuong. Although his preferred medium at the time was oil on canvas, he sparingly practiced painting on silk—a technique he had been trained in during his studies—and to which he would turn wholeheartedly upon arriving in France in 1937. Jeune femme lisant was painted on silk during this period of great artistic creativity for the young professor, who was then secluded in the imperial city. This delicate portrait attests to the artist’s talent for this demanding medium even during this early period of his career—known as the “Hué period”—and reflects his first forays into the world of art salons and fairs.

Related work:

Two Faces of the “School of Paris”: Pan Yu Lin’s Chinese Modernism and Hakukô Matsushima’s Japanese Tradition

From the beginning of the 20^th century, artistic exchanges between East and West flourished on an unprecedented scale with the arrival in Paris of a generation of young Chinese and Japanese artists. As the world capital of art, Paris attracted artists from across the globe through its museums, academies, Salons and vibrant avant-garde movements. Gathering in the districts of Montmartre and Montparnasse, they became part of the cosmopolitan artistic community that the critic André Warnod coined the “School of Paris” in 1925.

Renowned for her mastery of a wide range of media, including oil painting, ink, printmaking and sculpture, Pan Yu Lin developed from realism towards bold explorations of modernism, combining personal expression with traditional Chinese aesthetics. She was the first female artist to graduate from the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts in 1921 and left for France that same year. She was one of four Chinese women artists celebrated in a major retrospective held at the Musée Cernuschi in 1977.

In this still life, the choice of colours reveals the influence of Fauvism through broad areas of pure, luminous tones. In the foreground, the lacquered bonbonnière is a recurring motif in Pan Yu Lin’s still lifes. A veritable artistic signature, this object introduces a distinctly Chinese element into an oil painting conceived according to the conventions of Western painting.

Originally from Okayama Prefecture, Hakukô Matsushima (also known as Hakkō) graduated from the painting department of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1921. He was immediately appointed as a professor at the Women’s School of Fine Arts and, the following year, received an award of merit for a portrait of a young woman presented at the Tōkyō Hakurankai.

This delicate portrait on silk was among the works exhibited at the Musée du Jeu de Paume as part of the 1929 Exposition d’Art Japonais, École Classique Contemporaine, considered the most important official exhibition devoted to Japanese art in 20^th-century France¹.

Join Hoàng Tích Chù as we discover the magic of lacquer, a living art form

A native of Bac Ninh, Hoàng Tích Chù enrolled at the Indochina School of Fine Arts (Class XII, 1936–1941), where he specialized in the art of lacquer. He then opened his own studio in Hanoi and trained several great lacquer masters of his generation, before joining the school’s faculty after the war. Author of the technical manual …, he was named Master of Lyrical Lacquer Painting. Hoàng Tích Chù was recognized during his lifetime, gaining prominence through numerous exhibitions and winning several national and international awards.

These three large panels immerse the viewer in the majestic natural beauty of northern Vietnam’s mountainous landscapes. Hoàng Tích Chù, whom the painter Alix Aymé counted among those who “discover a new meaning in forms and colors¹,” distinguishes himself from his peers through his use of more vibrant hues. The artist reveals the full magic of a living medium, capable of producing unexpected results, such as when “white only truly becomes white after months or years of exposure².”

Indeed, the black of the first layer of lacquer—by inverting the pictorial values in the manner of a photographic negative—opens up a world where the sky is adorned with gold, the mountains with silver snow, and the trees with an incandescent red... A multitude of gradations and nuances then unfolds—a feat of great technical mastery—evoking a sunset over a landscape brought to life solely by the presence of a few deer.

¹ Alix Aymé, “Lacquer in Indochina and the Hanoi School of Fine Arts,” in Etudes d’Outre-Mer, December 1952.
² Tropiques No. 327, December 1950

HOÀNG TÍCH CHÙ, Extremely Rare Examples of His Paintings

The artist sent these two gouaches to the owners of the lacquerware piece that will go on sale on September 9. Originally a set of three, they were used to select the subject for the triptych created in 1983.

Multidisciplinarity in the Work of Nguyễn Siên

Nguyễn Văn Siên, better known as Nguyễn Siên, was born in 1916 in Bến Tre, Kiến Hòa Province. Showing an early talent for drawing and architecture, he graduated from the Gia Định School of Applied Arts in Saigon in 1940. He subsequently joined the 14th graduating class of the École des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine (1940–1945), where he specialised in lacquer painting under the guidance of Joseph Inguimberty (1896–1971).

In his lacquer works, Nguyễn Siên drew inspiration from the Khmer remains of Angkor, while in his oil paintings, his choice of colours—such as the blue used for the skin of young women set within the landscape—reveals the influence of Fauvism on his artistic practice. This movement, pioneered by Henri Matisse in 1905, is characterised by the same freedom and boldness in the use of colour found in the work of its various representatives.

Studio of Trần Văn Hà (1911–1974)

Trần Văn Hà, born in 1911 in Thanh Phước, began studying at the Indochina School of Fine Arts in 1930. He studied under the artist and one of the school’s founders, Joseph Inguimberty (1896–1971), as well as other artists from his class, such as Nguyễn Khang, Trần Văn Minh, and Nguyễn Anh. After graduating in 1935, Trần Văn Hà traveled through the heart of Vietnam before setting out to discover Europe, exploring the major artistic cities of France and Italy in 1938. Twenty years later, he opened the Trần Hà Studios in Saigon and supervised some thirty lacquer artists.

Trần Tấn Lộc (1906–1968)

Five works by Trần Tấn Lộc, to be offered at the auction on September 9, showcase the full extent of the artist’s mastery—whether in landscapes, genre scenes depicting everyday Vietnamese life, or highly individualized portraits.

Nguyễn Xuân Việt (born in 1949), heir to Nguyễn Gia Trí, master of abstract lacquer art

Born in Nakhon Phanom, Thailand, in 1949, Nguyễn Xuân Việt returned to his homeland in 1963 and trained under the great lacquer master Nguyễn Gia Trí (1908–1993). From 1966 to 1982, he furthered his practice at the Vietnam University of Fine Arts and then at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Arts, developing an abstract body of work in which lacquer unfolds into a multitude of intertwined forms and colors.

For seventeen years, he documented his teacher’s teachings in a book, Painter Nguyễn Gia Trí’s Words on Creation, published in 2009 in Vietnam. Considered “his dearest and most faithful disciple” by Father Linh Mục Tiên Cẩm¹, this book bears witness to a relationship as deep between the two men as it is between the two artists.

¹ Notes by Nguyen Xuan Viet, Painter Nguyen Gia Tri’s Words on Creation, Ho Chi Minh City, Literature and Arts Publishing House HCM City, 2009, p. 211.

We are currently seeking to expand our catalog with works that showcase the talent of these painters who bridged East and West in the early 20th century.

On the one hand, artists trained in both China and Europe, such as Sanuy, Pan Yulan…
And of course, we are also seeking works bearing the following signatures: Nguyễn Gia Trí, Tô Ngọc Vân, Nguyễn Tường Lân, Trần Văn Cẩn, Hoàng Tích Chù, Phạm Quang Hậu, Lê Phổ, Lê Thi Luu, Lê Văn Dệ, Vũ Cao Đàm, Victor Tardieu, Nguyễn Phan Chánh, Nam Sơn, Mai Trung Thu, Lương Xuân Nhị…

Auction [52] in preparation: Asian Painters, China and Vietnam
September 9, 2026, 2:30 p.m.

A quarterly auction is in the works: do you know the value of your items?

Take advantage of a free and confidential appraisal by our expert, Charlotte Aguttes-Reynier, a long-standing leader in this field.
reynier@aguttes.com
+ 33 6 63 58 21 82

Auction [53]: Modern Asian Art.
November 5, 2026, 2:30 p.m.