Georges Khánh (Nguyễn Gia Khánh, August 29, 1905 – after 194 - Lot 212

Lot n° 212
Go to lot
Estimation :
3000 - 4000 EUR
Register for the sale on drouot.com
Georges Khánh (Nguyễn Gia Khánh, August 29, 1905 – after 194 - Lot 212
Georges Khánh (Nguyễn Gia Khánh, August 29, 1905 – after 1945), Portrait of a Young Woman, Vietnam, Hanoi, 1936 A repoussé copper plate depicting a young woman in bust form, her face slightly turned, rendered with understated modeling and a focus on the facial volumes and expression. The relief technique allows the features to be rendered through a composition based on volumes and surface contrasts. The work is signed “G. Khánh” and located and dated “Hanoi 1936” in the lower right corner. 39.9 x 35.1 cm Slight dent on the right. Georges Khánh, whose Vietnamese name was Nguyễn Gia Khánh, was born on August 29, 1905 (see *Sur l’art annamite* by Henri Gourdon, president of the Franco-Tonkinese Artistic Society). Lecture given at the Colonial School in Paris on January 9, 1914. “Revue Indochinoise,” June 1914, pp. 547–562), belonged to the first generation of artists trained at the Indochinese School of Fine Arts, founded in Hanoi by Victor Tardieu and Nam Sơn and opened in 1925. He was part of the first graduating class, alongside Lê Phổ, Mai Trung Thứ, Nguyễn Phan Chánh, and Lê Văn Đệ, among others. As the first Vietnamese student in this class to specialize in sculpture, he received training that combined European academic instruction—drawing, anatomy, composition, and modeling—with the study of Vietnamese artistic traditions. After graduating around 1931, he became a professor of sculpture at the school, where he taught until its closure in 1945, thereby contributing to the training of the first generation of Vietnamese sculptors educated according to Western academic methods. A founding member of FARTA (Foyer de l’Art Annamite) in 1937, he also played a role in revitalizing the Vietnamese art scene. Together with Vũ Cao Đàm and Lê Tiến Phúc, he created three monumental bas-reliefs exhibited at the International Colonial Exposition in Paris in 1931, two versions of which are now preserved at the Vietnam University of Fine Arts. His best-known work is primarily devoted to portrait sculpture, characterized by a realism attentive to anatomy, volume, and psychological expression, combined with great restraint. Influenced by French academic sculpture, though not limited to it, Georges Khánh developed a sculptural language that combines Western training with a more restrained Vietnamese approach to representation. Through his work as an artist and, above all, through his teaching, he is considered one of the founding figures of modern Vietnamese sculpture.
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue