Silk painting of women selling flowers in Hanoi fetches $186,000
An oil painting on silk that fetched 176,400 euros ($186,000) late April was part of auction house Sotheby’s “Indochine Sale” of almost 50 early 20th century depictions of Vietnamese countryside.
The above unsigned lacquer painting, “Landscape in Northern Vietnam” portrays three farmers against mountains and rice fields. It is not signed but belonged to artists at the Hanoi College of Fine Art, an art school in Hanoi that was originally established under French colonial rule in 1925.
It sold at 94,500 euros.
The painting was part of the auction house’s “Indochine Sale” of almost 50 picturesque early 20th century depictions of northern villages and the suburbs of Saigon in lacquer and oil paintings
“Traveling scene in Tonkin” by artist Le Thy (1919-1961) was done in the 1940s.
The 61.3 x 120.5 cm painting features two women wearing ao tu than (four-part dress) and a man pulling a horse wagon. It was sold at 17,640 euros.
The “Village scene in Northern Vietnam” by Dinh Minh was painted in 1950s. It shows an afternoon when a farmer returns home with a horse. It was sold for 5,670 euros.
“In the rice fields” was done in the 1960s.
The artwork by Thanh Le (1919-2003) was acquired by a French collector from an exhibition of the artist’s in Paris in the 1960s. It was sold at 3,276 euros.
“Village by the river” by Tran Ha (1911-1974) depicts the daily life of people in southern Vietnam in the 1960s. Sotheby’s estimates its price at 3,000 – 5,000 euros.
“Women carrying firewood” by Nguyen Mai Thu in 1934, another scene from Vietnam’s northern countryside, sold for 11,340 euros.
“Village scene in Northern Vietnam” by Tran Van Tho, a silk painting done in 1950s, sold for 9,540 euros.
Sold for 1,134 euros, these two oil paintings by Tran Van Giang depict the landscape on the outskirts of HCMC in the 1960s.
“Flower vendors near Hoan Kiem Lake” by Phung Fu was sold for 176,400 euros. The oil painting on silk, done in 1936, shows an idyllic scene far removed from downtown Hanoi today.
Sotheby’s a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City, is one of the world’s largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewelery, and collectibles.