Provenance: Provenance: Wally Findlay Gallery, New York Private Collection, U.S.A.

ABOUT THE WORK

Twentieth-century artist Le Pho, the tenth child in a family of twenty of Emperor Le Hoan, was born in Vietnam on August 2, 1907. Best known for his widely collected paintings of Vietnamese subjects in interior settings and exotic landscapes, Le Pho was cultured and well-educated who was trained in brush painting. At eighteen, he was part of the first class of students who attended the French-sponsored Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Hanoi, directed by Victor Tardieu—a classmate of Matisse and Moreau—between 1925 and 1930. Here, he would also become an art professor from 1933 to 1936 upon returning to Hanoi after a twoyear scholarship in Paris where he studied painting. Le Pho then returned to Paris in 1937, serving as a delegate at the International Exposition and, later on, as a jury member. He also became an advisor to the Vietnamese Embassy in Paris, regularly exhibiting his works at the Salon des Independants. Well-traveled, Le Pho promoted his work at galleries worldwide. He settled in France until his death on December 12, 2001. The artist’s prime distinct style, developed in the course of his stylistic development, is marked by a combination of eastern and western painting techniques. La Lettre is among Le Pho’s simple yet profound paintings that exhibit this fusion in aesthetic approach. Vietnamese subjects, surrounded with greenery and set against a vibrant background of predominant yellow, bring out a level of appeal and delight to the viewer.