Lam Thu Hau

A LINEN-BOUND HARDCOVER ALBUM CONTAINING A GROUP OF 51 WATERCOLOUR PAINTINGS, EACH HEIGHTENED WITH GOLD ON PAPER AND CALLIGRAPHY, WITH A CLOTH-BOUND BOX

Private Collection, France

 

The paintings are in overall good, original condition. Some of the papers in the album have yellowed and aged, with watermarks and dirt, but there are no tears . Overall, the album is preserved well.
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It is a known fact that, to date there are very few Vietnamese paintings from the late 19th century remaining in museums and private collections. The Fine Art Museum of Hanoi has only two works by Le Van Mien even though he was regarded by many as the father of Vietnamese modern painting. Vietnamese artist Lam Thu Hau, based in Nam Dinh was another from that era.

This present lot by Lam Thu Hau is a special commissioned work by a French Indochina high ranking civil servant as a gift to his father in 1889.  It is an album with 51 exceptional watercolour paintings.  The album could be considered as a unique pictorial documentation, unveiling the first steps of Vietnamese painting toward modernity.

All of the finely painted watercolours, mostly gilded with gold pigment, accompanied by a caption depicting the scene and documenting an assortment of Vietnamese tradition and culture of that period.  Scenes from a wedding, religious rites, festivity dances, theatre, shops, labourers at work and battle scenes and...etc, According to the records, the artist spent more than 6 months in the year of 1889 in order to complete this commission work.

Now, more than a century later, these meticulously painted watercolours, in its original form of an album, witness the dawn of a new era in Vietnamese art.