Adam's FINE ASIAN ART Part I 28th & Part II 29th June 2022

154 307 + LÊ PHỔ (VIETNAM & FRANCE, 1907-2001) ECOLE DES BEAUX-ARTS DE L’INDOCHINE (INDOCHINA FINE ARTS COLLEGE), 1ST CLASS (1925-1930) Les blanchisseuses ou les lavandières au bord de l’eau, Vietnam (Washerwomen - Laundresses or Laundry Women - along the River, Vietnam) Ink on paper / two paper leaves Signed to the lower right Framed with a glass 37 x 49 cm (as seen in the frame) Provenance: - René et Raymonde Altobianchi, antique dealers active in the 1960s-1980s in l’Escarène, near Nice, French Riviera, where Lê Ph ổ settled after the French army, in which he enrolled in Carcassonne, was defeated by German. Their shop was named ‘César de Peluet’ after the first name of the father of Raymonde. Probably acquired in the 1970s from a local Estate. René Altobianchi was also an ornamental sculptor and was awarded the Medal of the French National Order of Merit for his volunteer role as a techni- cal director of judo, which he practiced along with Yves Klein, a world-renowned artist of the School of Nice prized, notably, for his famous ‘Leap into the void’ and his ‘IKB blue’. NOTICE TO BIDDERS: This lot has been authenticated by the Wally Findlay Institute, USA. According to them, it will be includ- ed in the forthcoming catalogue raisonne of the artist. The buyer will bear the cost of this certificate. Please e-mail the depart- ment for further details: yuchen@adams.ie. This lot is stored at CADOGAN TATE PARIS. Please contact CADOGAN TATE at Parc des Docks, Bâtiment 553B, 50 rue Ardouin, St Ouen, 93400 Paris, France, +33 1 48 20 85 60. Notes: One of the leading figures of modern Vietnamese art, Lê Ph ổ was born in 1907 in Hà Tây province into a respected Mandarin family, his father being the last viceroy of Tonkin. Showing a predisposition for painting and drawing, he entered the first class of the Indochina School of Fine Arts in 1925. He was soon noticed by the director and founder of the school, Victor Tardieu, for whom he retained a strong attachment throughout his life. In 1931, he came to France to present his works on the occasion of the International Colonial Exhibition. He chose to stay in Paris for a year to attend classes at the École des Beaux-Arts, then undertook several trips to Europe. He returned to Vietnam in 1933 and taught at the Indochina School of Fine Arts in Hanoi. He decided to settle permanently in France in 1937 and quickly became very well known. The washerwomen installed around the laundries have marked the previous centuries. Washerwomen is a generic term that in- cludes laundresses and laundry women who differ in the nature of the laundry they wash: the formers take care of the fine linen (e.g. costume) whilst the latter clean the less delicate, coarser linen (e.g. rags). This theme inspired many French artists of the 19th century, such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Honoré Daumier, with different perspectives: some glorified the hard work of these women whilst others showed their complicity at work. In Blanchisseuse, Lê Ph ổ , deals with a very Francophile pictorial subject with his Vietnamese soul. Two women are seated on a pier above quiet water: the first one, fronting the spectator, is soaking clothes in her hands, a laundry basin next to her; the second one, at rest and seen from the back, is melancholically staring at the horizon. The slender Vietnamese women wear traditional clothes known as áo dài. The one seen from the back also wears a traditional headdress. Lê Ph ổ used sweet, soft, curvy, and round lines to magnify the beauty and the femininity of those women (as would have done Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres), whom do not seem affected by their work. In doing so, he created an ideal depiction, an iconic vision of washerwomen. Compare with a related oil on canvas by Lê Ph ổ entitled ‘The Laundry Ladies’ sold at CHRISTIE’S Hong Kong, China, 2006-05- 28, lot 72, for €70,910. € 40,000 - 60,000 +