The late Vietnamese painter Lê Phổ (1907-2001) broke a new record with the sale of La famille dans le jardin (The Family in the Garden) at an auction in Hong Kong on April 5.

The ink-and-gouache-on-silk painting was sold for HK$18.6 million (US$2.369 million) at the ‘50th Anniversary Modern Evening Auction’ by Sotheby's Hong Kong.

Painted in 1938 – one year after the painter left Việt Nam to live in France – the 91.3cm-by-61.5cm painting is the artist's second largest figurative work to appear in the auction market.

It was signed ‘Le Pho’ in English and Chinese, stamped with a seal of the artist on the lower right corner.

The painting was accompanied by a certificate of authenticity prepared by the artist's son, Alain Lê Kim.

“Epitomising Le Pho's technical skill and vivid sense of imagination, La famille dans le jardin belongs to the pinnacle of Le Pho's oeuvre as well as the overarching stylistic epoch of Vietnamese modernism," Sotheby's writes on its website.

"This striking work is one of the finest, most elaborate known compositions by the artist painted on the delicate and demanding surface of silk. Especially striking due to its unconventionally large size, as only a handful of works of this scale and medium have surfaced in the auction market, this rare masterwork boasts exceptional wall power.

"Channeling the essential principles of Impressionism – creating scenes that were photographic, candid and momentary – Le Pho therefore offers a fleeting snapshot of the family, caught only in a moment of impermanence. An exquisite and captivating masterpiece of exceptional rarity, the present lot was executed in circa 1938 and is a testament to the heights of Vietnamese modern artistic innovations,” the Sotheby's introduction states.

According to Ace Lê, a researcher on Vietnamese art who is in charge of Sotheby's Vietnamese market, with a price of more than $2.3 million, the La famille dans le jardin so far is the highest-priced work by Lê Phổ, and the second highest-priced work of Vietnamese art.

The most expensive is the Portrait de Mademoiselle Phuong (Portrait of Madame Phượng) by Mai Trung Thứ (1906-1980), sold at $3.1 million at the ‘Beyond Legends: Modern Art Evening Sale’ of Sotheby's on April 17, 2021.

Artworks by other Vietnamese celebrated painters were also under the hammer on the same auction were Les chrysanthèmes (Chrysanthemums) and Jeune femme en bleu dans un paysage (Young Woman in Blue in a Landscape) by Vũ Cao Đàm, and Femmes et enfant au bord de la rivière (The women and child by the river) by Mai Trung Thứ.

Paintings by other world-famous painters, such as Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Joan Miro, Wu Guanzhong, Zao Wou-Ki, and Georgette Chen, were also presented at the auction.

Lê Phổ is a prominent Vietnamese painter who developed a successful and prolific career in France with thousands of artworks to his credit. His works are thirstily hunted by art collectors all over the world.

He is also the first Vietnamese artist whose paintings were sold for a million dollars in public auctions.

In April 2022, the three-panel painting Figures in a Garden by Lê Phổ was sold at $2.29 million.  

Later, in October 2022, The et Sympathie (The Sympathy) was sold for $1.36 million at Sotheby's Hong Kong.

His Autoportrait dans la forêt (A Self-portrait in the Forest) reached the price of $1.05 million at Sotheby's France, in March 2021.

In May 2019, his oil-on-canvas painting Nue (Nude) was sold for nearly $1.4 million at an auction at Christie’s Hong Kong and became his most expensive work then. — VNS