The boys were adorable. That was not the first word that popped into my head when I saw the art print at auction – it came later. What I saw was a painting with a refreshing quality, a fertile green field with bold splashes of red and muted pastels.
What was most captivating was the mass of black-haired Asian boys who seemed to be all over it in a state of innocent play. Running, climbing a tree, reading, playing with a kite, and in a more adult-like endeavor, standing together and listening as another spoke.
The picture offered a colorful departure from the pencil drawings, landscapes and some oversized pieces by Bucks County female artist Irma Barness (whose pastel of artist Selma Burke I had bought last year). These boys held their own mystique.
Instantly, I knew that I wanted that artwork, but I wasn’t sure if it was an original or a print. I don’t normally buy prints, but I liked this one so much that I was willing to consider it. So I examined it carefully – several times throughout the morning at the auction – to determine exactly what it was. I finally acknowledged that it was indeed a print (especially after finding one like it titled “La Recreation” for sale on the web).
Curious about the artist, I was happy to see that his name was stamped in English (with an inscription in Chinese written below it. I later learned that it was likely the date.). His name was Mai Thu. Googling, I found that he was a Vietnamese artist who migrated to France in the 1930s, and lived there for most of his life but depicted the people of his native country in his paintings.
I’m glad that he did because his works are both beautiful and expressive.
Mai Thrung Thu was born in 1906 and attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine in Hanoi from 1925 to 1930, where he was in its first graduating class. He settled in Paris in 1937 after visiting there to participate in an exhibition.
Among his classmates at the Hanoi art school were Le Pho and Vu Cao Cam, who like him would be among the most important Vietnamese artists of their time when they all worked in France in the 1930s. (Their contemporaries included Nguyen Phan Chanh, To Ngoc Van and the female artist Le Thi Luu.)
Works by Mai Thu, Le Pho and Vu Cao Cam were in high demand and they exhibited extensively. Mai Thu’s 1940 “Elegant Lady Overlooking the Balcony,” which sold for more than $77,000 at Sotheby’s in 2014, was part of a solo exhibit in Lyon, France, in 1941.
The three were said to combine their own classic teachings of Vietnamese art with what they were seeing and experiencing in Paris in the French salon or academic style. Mai Thu integrated his Vietnamese culture and sensibilities into his works.
Mai Thu was “renowned for his succinct brushwork and use of colour,” according to the Sotheby catalog. He painted mostly with gouache and ink on silk, and created a few oils on canvas. Away from art, he played a Vietnamese monochord instrument called the doc huyen/dan bau.
Along with painting children, Mai Thu also focused on Vietnamese women.
“Mai Thu poured his energies into a limited range of themes, mainly involving women and children, and often depicted a combination of both,” according to Christie’s 2015 catalog. “He favoured scenes that are set to bring forward a main character, without guise, and accessible to viewers. The range of colours and tones are modulated and subtle, lines are strong and firm, with black ink used liberally to enhance the hair or define objects set within neutral backgrounds.
Mai Thu’s works evoke an atmosphere, and sets out on a quest of Confucian will to articulate the harmony between painting and life. Every detail brings out softness, peace and a sense of sensual delight. His women are always gentle and almost submissive in their demeanour.”
He died in 1980, and his works still fetch good prices. The painting “Procession Musicale pour enfants (Children’s Musical Procession),” from 1970, sold for more than $285,000 at Christie’s in November. Another painting, “Maternite (1955),” sold at Christie’s in New York in 2012 for more than $38,000.
My framed print by Mai Thu isn’t worth much, but it introduced me to a new and different artist.
