VICTOR TARDIEU (1870-1937). - Lot 98

VICTOR TARDIEU (1870-1937). Director of the Indochina School of Fine Arts from 1925 to 1937. Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Prix de l'Indochine in 1920. La Cambodgienne au krama bleu, circa 1924-1928. Charcoal, red chalk and chalk drawing on framed paper, signed lower right. Beautiful Dutch-style blackened wood frame. Dimensions: 60x44 cm. Family provenance. (Good condition, a few pinholes in the corners corresponding to the hanging of the drawing in Victor Tardieu's house in Hanoi; light stains). Rediscovery of a work probably produced between 1924 and 1928. A PHOTOGRAPHIC SNAPSHOT Among the drawings or sketches devoted to women, sketched in their everyday gestures, sometimes with a view to the great fresco project to magnify ancestral attitudes that undeniably marked the great director of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, this almost full-length portrait is probably one of the painter's masterpieces. The young Cambodian servant girl, in the simple garb of a work outfit - white blouse, krama kerchief, a basket under her arm - stares nonchalantly at the painter and strikes an almost instantaneous pose as she works. The straight gaze, the hemmed mouth, the almost defiant expression accentuate the hieratic attitude; the young woman, plucked from her labor, is elevated to the rank of a timeless, ancestral model who captivates us. Our drawing can be compared to the Woman with a Fan, whose technique and dimensions are virtually identical. Indochine, Myths and Realities, chapter 7 - Drouot October 18, 2019. A certificate of authenticity will be issued on request by Mme Turolla-Tardieu, the artist's successor in title.