Lé Phô, Buffet, Desportes and the Master of Cortèges

Familiar names topped the bill. Vietnamese art, always in the foreground in auctions in France, was illustrated by Lé Phô’s delicate gouache on silk Woman with Carnations (64.1 x 44.9 cm/25.23 x 17.68 in). This work, which came up on the market for the first time, was in the same Bordeaux family since its purchase in Casablanca in 1942. Bearing two signatures, one in Latin letters, the other in Chinese characters, and the artist’s stamp, it sold for €550,000, more than quintupling its high estimate of €100,000.

Another iconic figure followed him. Bernard Buffet’s mixed media on paper Clown au chapeau melon sur fond rouge (Clown with Bowler Hat on Red background), a recurring theme in his work, is signed and dated "78" (65 x 50 cm/25.59 x 19.68 in). Duly listed in the archives of the Maurice Garnier Gallery, whose stamp it also bears, the portrait fetched €218,750. Next came a pair of important, brilliant paintings, signed and dated 1731, by one of France’s leading still life interpreters, Alexandre-François Desportes. Perdreau, bécasses, panier de pêches et prunes et abricots sur un entablement (Partridge, Woodcock, Basket of Peaches and Plums and Apricots on an Entablature) and Faisan, perdreau, abricots dans une jatte imari et figues sur un entablement (Pheasant, Partridge, Apricots in an Imari Bowl and Figs on an Entablature) obtained €212,500 (see photo).

One of the sale’s surprises was the reappearance of a painting on copper by the mysterious Master of the Cortèges, who worked in Paris c. 1640–1660 and was a contemporary of the Le Nain brothers (with whom he was long confused). His Flagellation of Christ (32 x 26 cm/12.60 x 10.24 in) sold for €162,500, surging past its high estimate of €20,000.