Pham Hau (1903-1994) - Lot 57

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Lot n° 57
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Result : 430 000EUR
Pham Hau (1903-1994) - Lot 57
Pham Hau (1903-1994) Deer herd in the jungle, circa 1940 Very rare set of three panels forming a triptych in polychrome and gilded lacquered wood Signed and stamped by the artist on the lower right panel 80 x 80 cm (panel) 240 x 80 cm (total) Provenance : - French private collection. Given as a retirement gift in the late 1980s or early 1990s to the current owner's father, then an employee of a leather tanning company in the Toulouse region. The work came from the company's director, who had lived in Asia. Passed down to the current owners. Born in 1903 in the village of Dông Ngac, Vietnam, Pham Hau grew up in an environment still deeply marked by local craft traditions. His first years of apprenticeship were spent in the workshop of Nam Son (Nguyen Van Tho, 1890-1973), whom he met through his father-in-law. This was to prove decisive in the artist's career: With this pioneer of modern Vietnamese painting and one of the founding fathers of the Hanoi School of Fine Arts, he received rigorous academic training, steadily perfected his skills and gradually affirmed his unique style. Between 1929 and 1934, he successfully entered the fifth class of the École supérieure des Beaux-Arts d'Indochine. During these seminal years, he developed a passion for the technique of lacquer, a demanding medium that he studied with rare assiduity, exploring its plastic resources and the interplay of materials, transparencies and depths. After graduating, he joined a group of avant-garde painters with whom he opened up to new creative perspectives, reconciling Vietnamese heritage with modern aesthetic research. He soon set up his own lacquer workshop in his native village of Dông Ngac, and became a sought-after artist among Vietnamese families and French colonial circles alike. Victor Tardieu, director of the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts d'Indochine, gave him his very first commission, an early recognition that helped establish his reputation. Over the years, Pham Hau distinguished himself with a profoundly innovative approach to lacquer, in which he integrated traditional Vietnamese elements with a resolutely contemporary aesthetic. He developed an exceptional mastery of carved lacquer, producing works of great narrative complexity, in which decorative motifs, landscapes and symbolic scenes intertwine with refinement. In 1935, at the first exhibition organized in Hanoi by the Société Annamite d'Encouragement à l'Art et à l'Industrie (SADEAI), he won the gold medal for his paintings. In 1943, his name appeared in the book Souverains et notabilités d'Indochine published by the General Government of Indochina, establishing his place as one of the most important master lacquerers of his time. Alongside his creative activity, he played an essential role in the preservation and transmission of the art of lacquerware in Vietnam. He taught at the Hanoi School of Fine Arts, where he trained numerous students, passing on to them a demanding technical knowledge and a profoundly respectful conception of this ancestral medium. He passed away in 1995, leaving behind a considerable body of work that remains today in museums and important public and private collections around the world. His influence continues to fuel the international recognition of Vietnamese lacquerware and inspire contemporary artists. The present triptych reveals a herd of deer and hinds in a lush jungle setting, treated in a cameo of red, ochre and gold lacquer, in a landscape of great decorative richness. Reading from left to right, the viewer is the viewer is progressively invited to enter this abundant vegetation, magnified by the gold highlights that illuminate the foliage and sky. The composition reveals a scene of profound tranquility: the herd emerges from the trees, captured in a suspended moment. Two of the animals seem on the lookout for a sudden presence presence, while others peacefully continue their walk, accentuating the sensation of a fragile balance between movement and immobility. The serenity of this scene is rendered with remarkable subtlety. Through the finesse of the line, the richness of the superimpositions typical of the lacquer technique and the depth of the backgrounds, the artist offers a poetic and idealized vision of his native Vietnam, both rural and tropical. This theme, dear to Phạm Hau's heart, was used in several
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