Besides King Ham Nghi's paintings, what else is in Lynda Trouvé's auction?
On September 22, the Drouot Hotel (Paris, France) will hold an auction "Indochine - Chapter 16", selling fine art, woodwork, ceramics and documents from the Indochina period. In which, there are 19 paintings painted by King Ham Nghi during his exile in Alger (the capital of Algeria).
According to art researcher Ngo Kim Khoi, the paintings for sale are owned by Henri Aubé - a French soldier stationed in Hanoi from 1907 to 1909. It is possible that Henri Aubé went to the thermal military hospital. in Vichy for treatment, like many officers stationed in the colonies at that time. He wrote: " Like a fairy tale, the gift of the former emperor who fell asleep on the floor of the scrap yard of a French officer's family, like a sleeping princess in the forest, will be awakened."
Ngo Kim Khoi also said that the Lynda Trouvé auction house offers a relatively low starting price for paintings of King Ham Nghi, ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 EUR – “This promises an auction war said to be fierce among collectors.”
More than 10 years ago, Vietnamese collectors once regretted not having the opportunity to own the king's work. According to an RFI report on the fact that a painting of King Ham Nghi was first put up for public auction, on November 24, 2010, at the Drouot Hotel (Paris), the painting was called "" Déclin du jour” (roughly translated: Afternoon, or: End of day), has attracted a lot of visitors of Vietnamese origin to watch and participate in the auction. The auction of King Ham Nghi's painting, belonging to the 41st lot (out of more than 200 lots), lasted less than 5 minutes but the price was raised 8 times compared to the original price of the document. In the end, a telephone auction participant successfully owned the work for 8,800 EUR.
According to Cécile Ritzenthaler, an expert on 19th and 20th century painting, and also the one who led the auction on November 24, 2010 (quoted from RFI's report), during the king's life, he studied painting with his teacher Marius Reynaud and studied sculpting with the famous French sculptor Auguste Rodin. In addition, King Ham Nghi also held an art exhibition in 1926 in Paris. She added: “From the very beginning, I received many phone calls from people who wanted to buy paintings, both Vietnamese and French. It is worth noting that the majority of these people want to buy for emotional reasons rather than for business purposes. Most of them were new to auctions, so they called me to consult. Their reaction is completely different from the merchants who live off of the art trade.”
Lynda Trouvé's late September auction is also an opportunity for collectors to find some of the big names in the Vietnamese art community such as Vu Cao Dam, Tran Phuc Duyen, Le Pho and other artists associated with the Vietnamese art community affiliated with the Indochina Fine Arts School such as Professor Alix Aymé or Principal Evariste Jonchère. In the list of objects for sale, the painting "Girl sitting in the garden" by painter Le Pho is estimated to have the highest price, up to 80,000 - 120,000 EUR. Next is a five-part painting by Tran Phuc Duyen, with an estimated price of 60,000 - 80,000 EUR. In addition, some valuable documents are also for sale in this auction.
Information from Drouot, Art Republik Vietnam
