The painting, made with ink and gouache; a type of watermedia consisting of pigment, water, a binding agent such as dextrin or gum arabic, and sometimes additional inert material; measures 91.3cm x 61.5cm.

"La famille dans le jardin" was originally created in 1937 when Le Pho resettled in France until his passing in 2001 and conveyed his longing for his homeland. 

The painting was offered up as part of the “50th Anniversary Modern Evening Auction” section of Sotheby’s Hong Kong auction house in Hong Kong (China) on April 5.

Of the Vietnamese works, Vu Cao Dam's "Jeune femme en blue dans un paysage" went for HKD4.5 million and Mai Trung Thu's "Femmes et enfants au bord de la riviere" ultimately sold for HKD5.7 million.

The auction also presented works by famous painters, including Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita, Sanyu, Cheong Soo Pieng, Wu Guanzhong, Liu Kuo-Sung, Fernando Zóbel, Affandi, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, and Pablo Picasso.

Le Pho, born in 1907 in Hanoi, was admitted to the Indochina Fine Arts College in 1925 and was subsequently awarded a scholarship to study in France in 1931.

Two years later he then returned to Vietnam to become a teacher at his former university, the Indochina Fine Arts College. He later died in Paris in 2001.

This marks the second piece by Le Pho to sell for a high price at Sotheby's Hong Kong auction house. Previously, in April, 2022, the painting “Figures in a garden” by Le Pho was sold for US$2.29 million.

Source: VOV