Le Pho: The Emancipated Confucian

The representation of a couple remains rare in the work of Le Pho.

Himself an orphan at a very young age, he was an adulator of women, a nature lover and many of his representations were essentially soft maternities, beautiful and elegant women, bunches of flowers (all freshly picked, according to his own testimony).

This beautiful and enigmatic work on silk depicts Couple d'Amoureux Parmi les Feuilles de Figuier (Loving Couple Among the Fig Leaves) (Lot 338). Their positioning and environment are not indifferent: if on one hand the clothes and the hairstyles for both are traditional, on the other the painter refuses to limit this woman in a strict Confucian role even though it used to be Le Pho's mandarin scholarly environment. Submission is no longer appropriate so he places her as the central figure with a soft face but a firm presence, salient breasts under the ao dai, quick in her movement to enclose the foliage creating a hedge of separation with the observer. One can notice - as if the painter did not want to distract the observer - the absence of flowers and the neutral background. The man, holding back, is more captivated than he is confident, searching for reassurance: he needs the woman more than she needs him.

Le Pho's message is clear: love exceeds authority, the woman is the equal of the man and the individual is more important than society.

For Le Pho the old mandarin society was dying and the artistic revolution was more important than the political reform. The painter votes with his brush. And when he paints, Le Pho already anticipates that he will never return to his native country. A few years later, always in Paris, he will meet Paulette his wife, who will offer him 55 years of happiness...

A man of conviction, Le Pho is a reminder of Cao Ba Nha (died in 1862) - who, contrary to him, remained faithful to the Confucian principles, suffering the stigma:

Sadness in my heart, dear fatherland, dear family The site remains the same but the men are no longer(excerpt from Tu Tiny Khuc).

Jean-François Hubert
Senior Expert, Vietnamese Art