Mai-Thu (Vietnamese, 1906-1980), Trung Thu Mai... Lot 15

Mai-Thu (Vietnamese, 1906-1980), Trung Thu Mai called "The Siesta", 1942 Ink and colors on silk. Signature and stamp, dated 1942, titled on the back. Height 26, Width 36 cm (as is). Provenance : - offered by Mr René Tarrin, manager of an import/export company with Indochina and in the Far East to his young collaborator Guy Jouanneau, executive between 1947 and 1966. - Kept in the family since then. Certificate of authenticity dated 10 May 2021, by Mrs Mai Lan Phuong, daughter of the artist, whom we thank for her precious information and her kind expertise. This lot will be included in her catalogue raisonné in preparation. THE DREAMED SIESTE OF MAI THU Son of a viceroy at the court of Hué, Mai Trung Thu (1906-1980), known as Mai-Thu, joined the first class of the Indochina School of Fine Arts, founded by Victor Tardieu in Hanoi, in 1925. Receiving a demanding and innovative artistic education, Mai-Thu developed his own style, inspired by a thousand-year-old culture, which he transformed through the modernity of new subjects magnifying the Vietnamese woman. Exhibiting in Europe and the Far East, he taught drawing in Hué before moving to Paris for the 1937 Universal Exhibition. The painter never left his adopted country, voluntarily enlisting in the army during the Second World War. Released in 1941 from the German jails, Mai-Thu then turned away from the oil painting he had learned in Indochina to renew in France the ancestral practice of painting on silk. With audacity, he transformed tradition into innovation. Extremely difficult technique which does not tolerate any repentance, the painting on silk answers a precise protocol. On a very thin and unmixed support, the artist applies a preparation of glue, flour, rice or starch, added to alum, which makes the surface smoother. The drawing can then be sketched with charcoal or pencils, while the colours, watercolour, tempera or gouache are applied with force so that the fibres of the fabric are impregnated. If the painting is done with an oil paint brush, it is then washed with water to soften the colours and allow them to blend better. The painter then signs his name, with his ideogram, and dates the work. Created in the fertile year of 1942, when Mai-Thu had just been liberated and was embarking on a new artistic adventure, our silk painting depicts a young woman wearing a traditional white jacket, known as "ao dai", over black trousers. Her hair untied, she is lying on a carved and red lacquered wooden bed. Asleep, she is holding a fan while a book turned over on the abandoned page lies beside her. Here the painter achieves a synthesis of East and West, drawing his inspiration from the European Venuses of the 17th to 19th centuries, applied to the restrained and idealized beauty of a young Annamese woman. The skilful use of curtains and coloured hangings in the background reinforces the setting while allowing the softness and sounds of the afternoon to pass. Probably exhibited in Algiers, Paris or in the provinces in 1942, La sieste was bought by a Parisian entrepreneur, René Tarrin, associated in 1950 with Gaston Meritte, domiciled at 48 rue de l'aviateur Roland Garros in Saigon. He offered it to a young collaborator, in whose descendants it has remained to this day. Precise handwritten instructions on the back of the silk regarding the framing requirements complete the picture, still in its original frame, as one of the timeless masterpieces of Mai-Thu's art. Aymeric Rouillac