梅忠恕

This work is in good overall condition as viewed. The silk is intact and free of discoloration and tears. The paint layers are healthy overall. Framed, under Plexiglas.
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“Your voice I heard as sound and word;
Your soul I breathed with every breath.
My Muse wove verse of light on your white dress While little leaves outdoors with joy fluttered.

We both enjoyed ourselves all through the day
You gave me bliss in generous armloads.
Your white spring-clear tunic’s soft gentle sway
Sent our souls to their heavenly abode.”

 – Huy Can (Translated by Thomas D. Le)

Best known for his illustrations of graceful figures, French-Vietnamese painter Mai Trung Thu encapsulated the tender moments of everyday lives with his “Ecole Franco-Vietnamese” style. Despite having spent most of his life in Paris, the artist remains as one of the major characters involved in propelling the development of Vietnamese modern art, forming the French-Vietnamese School in particular. Stylistically blending elements from traditional Vietnamese paintings and the French School, Mai Thu’s paintings captured his love for his motherland.

Naϊades is a rare piece from Mai Thu’s oeuvre since it marks a divorce from Mai Thu’s usual motifs. Rather than depicting scenes of daily lives, Vietnamese traditions, or still life, the present painting features two nudes in the middle of a bath in the stream. Even though the figures are in complete nudity, the painting does not speak an erotic nor vulgar language. Rather, the painting enunciates a soft and gentle tone that allows the audiences to admire this delicate moment. In the present painting, Mai Thu took the European ideals of women and their manner of depictions and placed it in an inherently Vietnamese context. By presenting this intimate moment with delicate colours, Naїades epitomized the classic Vietnamese female figures, and represented a more sensual side of Mai Thu’s collection.