Le Pho (1907-2001) Lot n° 231

Jeune fille à la tasse de thé, circa 1955 Oil, ink and color on silk, signed lower left 28 x 17 cm - 11 x 6 5/8 in. On the back of Jeune fille à la tasse de thé, the label of the Romanet gallery testifies of the support and interest that Lê Phổ received from the French artistic sphere starting in 1942. This gallery, at the time located at 18 Avenue Matignon in Paris, chose to advise him for some twenty years and to exhibit his work in Paris and internationally. It was also during this period that his painting began to evolve. Retaining the use of ink and silk, Lê Phổ introduced oil which gradually took the place of gouache. The light colors, laid down in solids, sometimes rub shoulders with spaces of silk left empty. Maintaining his taste for graceful feminine subjects, Lê Phổ loads his painting more with, here, a very present floral composition and an almost abstract background. This painting heralds the artist’s future transition to the use of bright oil colors and the abandonment of silk in favor of canvas.