LE THI LUU (1911-1988) Lot n° 204

Girl with her bouquet Ink and gouache on silk, signed lower right. 34 ,5 x 21,5 cm Good condition. Slight wetness towards the top left, between two tree trunks, possibly original. Little known to the general public, Le Thi Luu is considered one of the most important Vietnamese painters of her time. She was born in North Vietnam in 1911 and died in France in 1988. At just fifteen, she entered the Hanoi School of Fine Arts, where she studied under Victor Tardieu (1870-1937) and Joseph Inguimberty (1896-1971). It was here that she met and befriended some of the greatest artists of twentieth-century Vietnamese painting, including. Le Pho, Mai,Tring Thu, Vu Car Dam, Le Van De, Nguyen Phan Chanh, To Ngoc Van and Nguyen Gia Tri ... She arrived in Paris with her husband in June 1940, and soon moved down south to Nice to meet up with her friends Le Pho and Mai Thu. The family stayed there for two years before her husband was appointed director of the botanical garden at Kindia in Guinea. She returned to France in 1945 and settled for a time in Vanves with Mai Thu, where Vu Cao Dam was a close neighbor. In 1948, the family moved to Paris, before moving to Gentilly in 1953. It wasn't until 1971 that she left the Paris region to stay permanently in Provence, in Spéracedes. On her death, her family made a major donation of her works to the Museum of Fine Arts in Hô-Chi-Minh-Ville.