The Value of Le Pho Paintings (Artist Price Guide)

Vietnamese artist Le Pho (1907-2001) is known for his colorful depictions of Vietnamese landscapes and women, which masterfully combine his extensive studies of both Asian and Western painting techniques. During his seven decades long career, Le Pho experimented with a wide variety of art mediums, from Asian-influenced work like painting on silk or wood panel, to the more traditional Western techniques of oil on canvas. Considering that his works can sell at auction for anywhere between a few thousand dollars to a million or more, an expert appraisal is necessary to determine the value of a Le Pho piece.

Who Was Lê Phổ?

Le Pho (1907-2001) was a Vietnamese artist born August 2nd, 1907 in the Ha Dong district of northern Vietnam, which was a part of French Indochina at that time. He studied art at the recently founded Ecole De Beaux Artes de l’Indochine, and later at the Ecole de Beaux Artes in Paris. After teaching art in Vietnam in the 1930s, Le Pho returned to France, where he would continue to paint and exhibit his art until his death in 2001.

What is the Artist Le Pho Known For?

During his earlier career in France, known as his Romanet period, Le Pho primarily painted scenes from his childhood in Vietnam, often including elongated figures of Vietnamese women. Beginning in the 1950s to 1960s and onward, his work became increasingly colorful and abstract. During this time, known as his Findlay period due to his association with Wally Findlay Galleries in the United States, Le Pho transitioned to painting more family scenes than individual women, and replaced more traditional backgrounds with explosions of highly colorful flowers.

For over 2000 years, Vietnamese people have been processing lacquer from the resin of the Chinese lacquer tree to make art and other objects glossy, waterproof, and resistant to wear. Modern Vietnamese lacquer painting arose in the 1930s at L’Ecole de Beaux Artes in Hanoi, where artists combined Western painting techniques with traditional materials, including eggshell and cinnabar to create the pigments. The colored or transparent lacquer is applied to a surface in many layers, which must be dried and sanded down over the course of days or weeks to reveal the final product. Lacquer works by Le Pho are considered very rare, and carry a high price tag due to their scarcity as well as the large amount of labor and material cost that went into their creation.

What Mediums did Le Pho Use?

Le Pho used a variety of mediums across the span of his long career, including watercolor, gouache, lacquer, and oil paints. Besides canvas, many of Le Pho’s works are painted onto silk, or occasionally other materials such as wood panels.

Oil on Canvas

Le Pho is perhaps best known for the oil on canvas works he created during his later Findlay period in France, beginning in the 1950s. These works used highly colored oil pigments to create eye-catching post-Impressionistic depictions of women and children surrounded by flowers against bright, abstract backgrounds.

How Much Are Le Pho Artworks Worth?

Le Pho’s artwork has an enduring popularity in art markets across the world, and prices for his work continue to rise. In 2022, the three part panel was sold for a record price of $2,283,600 in Hong Kong. The previous highest sold price for a Le Pho piece was $1,391,900 in 2019. Values between $10,000 and $150,000 are more common, although few paintings a year do regularly far exceed this range.