Lot no. 40
MAI THU [Vietnamese] (1906-1980)
Mother and children in front of the river, 1975.
Ink and colours on silk signed lower right and dated
81 x 60 cm for the silk
106 x 84 cm with its frame painted by the artist
A certificate from the Mai Thu Committee will be given to the buyer.
Lan Mai remembers seeing her father paint this work.
Mai Trung Thu, known as Mai Thu, was born in 1906 in Haïphong, in the north of present-day Vietnam, into a wealthy family of scholars. His father was a mandarin and a high dignitary at the court of Hué. He studied at the French lycée in Hanoi and then at the École supérieure des beaux-arts d'Indochine, founded in the Tonkin capital in 1925 by Victor Tardieu and Nguyen Nam Son. He was part of the first graduating class, along with his friends Lê Phô and Vu Cao Dam. An exhibition devoted to these three artists is currently on show at the Musée Cernuschi.
A filmmaker and photographer, he is also a musician who has painted throughout his career to the sound of traditional Vietnamese instruments.
The artist took part in the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, where he exhibited La jeune fille d'Hué.
After remaining in France and volunteering for the army, Mai-Thu was demobilised in Mâcon, where he stayed in 1940 and 1941. There, the painter painted portraits of notables and decorated a chapel in Saint-Pierre church.
He then moved to Paris, where he settled permanently in 1943. He then abandoned the technique of oil painting in favour of ink and gouache on silk.
Recognised as an Asian painter, he had a succession of exhibitions at the Galerie Hessel, the Pavillon de Madagascar, the Galerie Cardo-Matignon, the Galerie d'Art Français, the Galerie Apesteguy, etc.
Our composition Mother and children in front of the river takes up a theme dear to the artist, who has never ceased to recreate the family atmosphere experienced in Indochina. The happy youth of Mai Thu's life inspires her to paint scenes imbued with great gentleness.
Mai Thu organises space with a curvilinear line, using ancestral Vietnamese iconography. Her signature in Latin letters and her Vietnamese stamp illustrate her duality between East and West, a way for the artist to assert her origins.
For Mother and Child in Front of the River, the artist placed the mother and three toddlers in close-up, using flat tints of complementary colours. Produced in 1975, the year the Vietnam War ended, the work expresses a vision of a peaceful future. At this time, the representation of the characters, and particularly the children, was evolving. Their rounded cheeks and expressive looks symbolise hope, peace and renewal. Seen from behind, the children's mother stares out at the horizon, her gaze turned towards the future. Animated by a peaceful boat, the river evokes the reunification of Vietnam. Beyond the river stretches an idealised landscape of plains and mountains.
The first Mai-Thu, echo of a dreamed Vietnam retrospective was presented in 2021 at the Musée des Ursulines in Mâcon under the aegis of the Musée Cernuschi.
Now, until 9 March 2025, the Musée Cernuschi in Paris is presenting an exhibition devoted to the artistic destinies of Mai Thu, Lê Phô and Vu Cao Dam. It reveals the common roots and singular expressions shaped by the combination of cultures and history of the three friends from the Hanoi School of Fine Arts. On this occasion, 180 works are presented in Les pionniers de l'art moderne vietnamien en France.
Expert: Cabinet Ottavi
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