Marie Adélaide Baury-Vaillant (Fin XIXe - début du XXe s.), Portrait de Son Altesse (lPrince Vinh Thuy futur empereur Bao Dai)

Marie Adélaide Baury-Vaillant  (Fin XIXe - début du XXe s.), Portrait de Son Altesse (lPrince Vinh Thuy futur empereur Bao Dai), ca 1920s. Photo Sotheby's

Inscription on the reverse. Pastel on paper laid on canvas (Pastel sur papier contrecollé sur toile), 54 by 44 cm.; 21 1/4 by 17 1/4 in. Executed CIRCA 1920s. Estimation 50,000 — 70,000 HKD. Sold 56,250 HKD (5 307 €)

Provenance: Private Collection, Paris.

Prince Vinh Thuy was the heir of the Imperial Crown of Vietnam, and studied in Paris during the 1920’s. He is the model for this colorful and charming portrait by the French artist Marie Adélaïde Baudry-Vaillant, herself a renowned painter of the French Salons and portraitist for the city’s elite.

For this official portrait Prince Vinh Thuy is wearing a yellow Imperial dress, and the traditional Vietnamese turban. His formal attire contrasts with the gentleness of his facial expression, and posture. The Prince represents the hope for his people during this era. When he returned to Vietnam in the late twenties on order to become Emperor, he left this portrait with relatives in France as a souvenir of his youth. In addition to its historical significance, this pastel portrait also reveals the personal life of a man who would become the last Emperor of Annam.

Sotheby's. Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian. Hong Kong | 06 oct. 2013  -  http://www.sothebys.com/