Le Pho (1907-2001)
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The artist Le Pho was a pioneering Vietnamese modernist whose Mandarin sensibility and late embrace of French art endowed his work with considerable sophistication and grace. His characteristic subjects—Asian women and children, still lifes, and florals—persisted as his style evolved from a Chinese-influenced linear approach to a more Impressionistic style. “The women in my husband’s paintings are all Asian, not European,” noted Le Pho’s wife, Paulet Le Pho.
Le Pho was born in Vietnam on August 2, 1907. He was the tenth child in a family of twenty fathered by the senior mandarin and Viceroy of Tonkin, Le Hoan. Due to his father’s status, Le Pho received a cultured education, including training in brush painting. Le Hoan was suspected for many years of being a front man for the French colonialists and may have participated in suppressing a peasant uprising led by De Tham. Although recent records appear to vindicate Le Hoan, Le Pho’s early life was colored by these politically charged events. Orphaned at a young age, he was raised by his brother’s wife.
At the age of 18, Le Pho became a member of the first class of students to attend the new French-sponsored Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts d’Indochine (College of Fine Arts of Vietnam) in Hanoi in 1925. The Ecole was founded and directed by Victor Tardieu, a muralist and history painter who had been a student alongside Henri Matisse in the Atelier Moreau. Students at the Ecole were encouraged by instructor Joseph Inguimberty to maintain their Asian and Vietnamese identity by painting on silk or working in lacquer. Although Inguimberty, who taught perspective and oil painting, disliked the works of French modern painters Dufy, Matisse, and Rouault, he still required his Vietnamese students to study (but not copy) their works.
In 1928, Le Pho opened his first exhibition in Hanoi with artists Vu Cao Dam and Mat Thu. In 1930, he received a diploma from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and was given his first commission to create lacquer screens and murals at the Governor's Palace. Although he produced a single lacquer screen and lacquer box (which he gifted to Victor Tardieu, who considered Le Pho his best student), he was allergic to lacquer and never used it again.
In 1931, the 24-year-old Le Pho was sent to Paris by the Government of Indochina as an assistant to Victor Tardieu, who at the time was the artistic director of the Angkor Pavilion at the Exposition Coloniale. In 1932, Le Pho entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. During his two years in Europe, Le Pho traveled to Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands, visiting museums and expanding his knowledge of European painting.
Upon returning to Hanoi in 1933, he was appointed a professor at the Hanoi Ecole des Beaux-Arts, a position he held until 1935. One student later recalled Le Pho as always wearing glasses and a well-kept suit. He did not talk much and was very gentle with the students. When a student produced a good painting, he often complimented them with, “C’est pas mal.” (That’s not bad).
Le Pho returned to Paris in 1937 to serve as a delegate to the International Exposition and also as a jury member. He then remained in France and had his first solo show there in 1938. He became an advisor to the Vietnamese Embassy in Paris and regularly exhibited at the Salon des Independants. Le Pho enlisted in the French Army in 1939 but was discharged a year later. In 1943, he met the artist Henri Matisse, who advised him to lighten his colors.
In 1946, together with Tran Duc Thao and Tran Huu Tuoc, he assisted President Ho Chi Minh and Prime Minister Pham Van Dong during the negotiations between Vietnam and France on Vietnamese independence in Fontainebleau. At that time, Le Pho and several other Vietnamese intellectuals wanted to return to Vietnam to fight the French, but Ho Chi Minh—who gave Le Pho an inscribed photo of himself—advised them to stay in Paris.
Through the late 1940s, Le Pho painted with long, thin brushes using watercolor on silk. His style and technique during this period show the influence of Chinese art. His subjects, including women, bamboo, birds, and lotus flowers, were traditionally Asian. His female figures from this period have calm, idealized features and appear in serene, graceful poses.
In the 1950s, after Le Pho absorbed influences from French modern artists including Pierre Bonnard and Odilon Redon, he began working in oil, developing a soft, colorful style that reflected Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Through exhibitions in Algiers (1941), Paris (1945), Brussels (1948), San Francisco (1962), and New York (1963), Le Pho built an international reputation.
Le Pho died in Paris in 2001, after donating 20 of his works to the Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts. He told friends that although he had lived in France, his soul had always remained in Vietnam.
Le Pho was born in Vietnam on August 2, 1907. He was the tenth child in a family of twenty fathered by the senior mandarin and Viceroy of Tonkin, Le Hoan. Due to his father’s status, Le Pho received a cultured education, including training in brush painting. Le Hoan was suspected for many years of being a front man for the French colonialists and may have participated in suppressing a peasant uprising led by De Tham. Although recent records appear to vindicate Le Hoan, Le Pho’s early life was colored by these politically charged events. Orphaned at a young age, he was raised by his brother’s wife.
At the age of 18, Le Pho became a member of the first class of students to attend the new French-sponsored Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts d’Indochine (College of Fine Arts of Vietnam) in Hanoi in 1925. The Ecole was founded and directed by Victor Tardieu, a muralist and history painter who had been a student alongside Henri Matisse in the Atelier Moreau. Students at the Ecole were encouraged by instructor Joseph Inguimberty to maintain their Asian and Vietnamese identity by painting on silk or working in lacquer. Although Inguimberty, who taught perspective and oil painting, disliked the works of French modern painters Dufy, Matisse, and Rouault, he still required his Vietnamese students to study (but not copy) their works.
In 1928, Le Pho opened his first exhibition in Hanoi with artists Vu Cao Dam and Mat Thu. In 1930, he received a diploma from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and was given his first commission to create lacquer screens and murals at the Governor's Palace. Although he produced a single lacquer screen and lacquer box (which he gifted to Victor Tardieu, who considered Le Pho his best student), he was allergic to lacquer and never used it again.
In 1931, the 24-year-old Le Pho was sent to Paris by the Government of Indochina as an assistant to Victor Tardieu, who at the time was the artistic director of the Angkor Pavilion at the Exposition Coloniale. In 1932, Le Pho entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. During his two years in Europe, Le Pho traveled to Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands, visiting museums and expanding his knowledge of European painting.
Upon returning to Hanoi in 1933, he was appointed a professor at the Hanoi Ecole des Beaux-Arts, a position he held until 1935. One student later recalled Le Pho as always wearing glasses and a well-kept suit. He did not talk much and was very gentle with the students. When a student produced a good painting, he often complimented them with, “C’est pas mal.” (That’s not bad).
Le Pho returned to Paris in 1937 to serve as a delegate to the International Exposition and also as a jury member. He then remained in France and had his first solo show there in 1938. He became an advisor to the Vietnamese Embassy in Paris and regularly exhibited at the Salon des Independants. Le Pho enlisted in the French Army in 1939 but was discharged a year later. In 1943, he met the artist Henri Matisse, who advised him to lighten his colors.
In 1946, together with Tran Duc Thao and Tran Huu Tuoc, he assisted President Ho Chi Minh and Prime Minister Pham Van Dong during the negotiations between Vietnam and France on Vietnamese independence in Fontainebleau. At that time, Le Pho and several other Vietnamese intellectuals wanted to return to Vietnam to fight the French, but Ho Chi Minh—who gave Le Pho an inscribed photo of himself—advised them to stay in Paris.
Through the late 1940s, Le Pho painted with long, thin brushes using watercolor on silk. His style and technique during this period show the influence of Chinese art. His subjects, including women, bamboo, birds, and lotus flowers, were traditionally Asian. His female figures from this period have calm, idealized features and appear in serene, graceful poses.
In the 1950s, after Le Pho absorbed influences from French modern artists including Pierre Bonnard and Odilon Redon, he began working in oil, developing a soft, colorful style that reflected Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Through exhibitions in Algiers (1941), Paris (1945), Brussels (1948), San Francisco (1962), and New York (1963), Le Pho built an international reputation.
Le Pho died in Paris in 2001, after donating 20 of his works to the Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts. He told friends that although he had lived in France, his soul had always remained in Vietnam.