Vu Cao Dam

(1908-2000)

La Famille

Footnotes

The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by The Findlay Institute. This work will be included in the forthcoming Vu Cao Dam catalogue raisonné currently being prepared, under no. FG#120882.

Provenance
Artist Studio, Paris, France, 1963
Private Collection of Cyrus and Mary Eaton, acquired in the late 1960s
Private Collection, California, USA (by descent from the above)

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Among all the great Vietnamese masters recognised today, Vu Cao Dam remains one of the most admired for the finesse and poetic beauty of his body of work. Born in Hanoi in 1908 into a scholarly family, Catholic but of Confucian tradition, Vu entered Hanoi's École des Beaux-Arts d'Indochine in 1926 at 18 years old, a year after the school first opened. During the first ten years of his career, he focused mainly on sculpture and displayed remarkable talent and maturity in his work for his young age. At only 23, he was selected to participate in the 1931 Paris Colonial Exhibition and gained much acclaim from the local press and art critics of the time.

Upon graduating from the school in 1931, Vu was awarded a one-year scholarship to study in France and enrolled at the prestigious École du Louvre in the Far-East section. Little did he know that he was never to see his homeland again, as war and geopolitical upheaval changed the course of his destiny. Yet his homeland was never far from his heart, as it was evidently the inspiration behind his art. One senses the outpouring of love and longing, the bittersweet melancholy that pervades the art of the Master. Vu went on to marry a French woman and settled in France, yet the inspiration for his artistic vision remained his youthful memories of his beloved motherland.

As he often stated throughout his career, his artistic interpretations were mainly drawn from the Kim Van Kieu, the famous and much revered Vietnamese epic written by Nguyen Du (1765–1820). In 1949, Vu moved from Paris to the countryside of southern France, renowned for its beautiful scenery and light, living down the road from Matisse's Chapel and a short distance from Marc Chagall's home. Having excelled in both painting and sculpture, Vu's artwork stands the test of time for its profound beauty, extreme refinement, and humanistic sensitivity.

Today multicultural and multiracial expressions are sought but I think I was among the first to try, in my work, to reconcile my oriental roots, without disrupting tradition, with my perception of the lessons given by studying the masters of western culture. — Vu Cao Dam, 1997

Predominantly blue in colour, Vu employs discreet accents of red in this charming portrait of a family unit of father, mother, and child in traditional Vietnamese attire. Seated in the foreground, cross-legged in a manner that calls to mind Buddhist imagery, the father figure holds a red fruit in his hand—perhaps a pomegranate, ancient symbol of life and fertility. On the right side, dressed in luminous white, the mother cradles her baby, reminiscent of the Madonna and Child images in Christianity. Through the strategic and restrained use of complementary colours in what is an overall cool colour scheme, Vu masterfully and subtly heightens the contrast and colour vibration of this balanced and poignant composition. La Famille not only exemplifies the artist's virtuosity in painting, it also stands as a testament of a man's lifelong exploration and discovery of his multicultural identity. The work is from the collection of Mary and Cyrus Eaton Jr., prominent war hero and businessman, and son of the famous industrialist Cyrus Eaton Sr. It has remained with the family since it was acquired in the late 1960s.