Every great painter has his emblematic work. Among many others, Guernica for Picasso, Le déjeuner sur l’herbe for Manet, David for Michelangelo or La Joconde for Leonardo da Vinci.  These works have this in common, they express the quintessence of the artist at his peak, and they are part of important moments in the history of Art and therefore of Humanity.

La Femme du Mandarin (The Mandarin’s Wife), by Le Pho (1907-2001) is one of those emblematic works that is both sumptuous, unique and a manifesto of Vietnamese painting.

When Le Pho painted this oil on canvas (81 X 130 cm) in 1931, he had graduated a year earlier from the École des Beaux Arts de l’Indochine (Indochina School of Fine Arts) in Hanoi. He was 24 years old. It was already clear that he would be one of the greatest Vietnamese painters of his century. The work is remarkable for the restrained tension expressed in this Femme du Mandarin. Her pose, hands clasped, her white Ao Dai, her bun, a discreet bracelet and a discreet earring assume the simplicity worthy of a single woman. Her plucked eyebrows, lipstick, and light facial makeup mark her independence.

The flowers of Camellia known as “white doves”, appear captured more than planted in a pot itself mechanically placed on a stand of which we only see the top are hatched but orphaned from their true mother earth. They testify to the absurdity of the world.

The rich but austere residence sees its bay opening on poor and unreal vegetation.

Together with its occupant, they bear witness to the Confucian values that regulate the Tonkinese society in which Le Pho was born. Everything is meditation and restraint. An epicureanism of abstention.

The poem at the top left in Chinese characters (it should be noted that Le Pho does not equal Nguyen Phan Chanh calligraphic skill…) is an excerpt in Chinese from Chinh Phụ Ngâm (征婦吟, Chant de la femme du combattant, Song of the Fighter’s Wife) written around 1740 by Đặng Trần Côn. Later in the late 18th century or early 19th century, Phan Huy Ích transposed it into Nôm.

The characters are as follows, with their transcription in Roman characters on the right and the text in Quốc Ngữ below and then the English translation:

功名百忙裡             Công-danh bách mang lý
勞苦未應閒             Lao-khổ vị ưng nhàn
勞與閒誰與言         Lao dữ nhàn thuỳ dữ ngôn
君在天涯妾倚門     Quân tại thiên-nhai, thiếp ỷ môn

Áng công danh trăm đường rộn rã,
Những nhọc nhằn nào đã nghỉ ngơi.
Nỗi lòng biết tỏ cùng ai,
Thiếp trong cánh cửa, chàng ngoài chơn mây.

Seeking glory in the midst of a thousand sorrows,
Though weary, you forget to rest.
To whom can you confide the secret of your heart?
I, behind my door and you, on the horizon!

The Chinh phụ ngâm is as famous and respected in Vietnam as the Kim-Vân-Kiều, Le Pho’s choice of text is not surprising. On the other hand, one may wonder about the selection of the verses themselves by the painter. From this long poem, he extracts a passage where “glory” and “horizon” appear, two premonitory words that identify his near future. The “Colonial Exhibition” of 1931, the successful “conquest of the West” of the painter, bringing him glory under other horizons.