NGUYEN VAN TY's workshop. - Lot 263

NGUYEN VAN TY's workshop. The rapids of Cho Bo. Triptych of lacquered and gilded wood panels. 20th century. Workshop work, the panel bears a signature and stamp lower right. Dimensions of one panel: 83.5x99 cm. Total dimensions: 83.5x297 cm. The famous Cho-Bo rapids on the Rivière Noire - just a few dozen kilometers from Hanoi - are one of the must-see places in Upper Tonkin that lacquer professor Joseph Inguimberty loved to paint. Between 1940 and 1942, the director led his students to work on this fascinating motif, which lends itself admirably to grand panoramas. It was with this artistic approach that Nguyen Van Ty (1917-1992), a graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine - Class of 1941, became attached to this emblematic site of North Vietnam. Between 1941 and 1943, assisted by a number of Beaux-Arts students, he created at least four versions of this theme, four lacquers with very different atmospheres and dimensions. During the Indochina war (1946-1954), Nguyen Van Ty became a teacher in the Resistance classes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Once peace had returned, he settled permanently in Hanoi and in turn became Professor at the North Vietnamese School of Fine Arts, a position he held until 1969. Our panel probably dates from this period. The master lacquerer in turn invited his students to translate this highly emblematic motif.