LILLE.- A previously unrecorded silk painting by Vietnamese modernist Lê Thi Luu has resurfaced in a private collection in northern France and will be offered at auction this September with an estimate of €150,000 to €200,000.
The work, titled Maternité and dated 1973, will be presented by Artefact Enchères in Lille on September 12, 2026. According to the auction house, the painting had not appeared in market databases and had been absent from public sales for decades.
The discovery was made during an inventory in the Lille region by Maître Lara Schweitzer, associate auctioneer at Artefact Enchères. The owner had not originally intended to show the work.
“It was during an inventory in the Lille region that I discovered this painting on silk, whose quality of execution I recognized at first glance,” Schweitzer said. “The owner had no idea what she owned. We are delighted to offer this previously unseen work to collectors—it should attract the attention of international bidders.”
An expert assessment later confirmed the attribution to Lê Thi Luu. A label on the back of the frame traces the painting to Galerie J. Le Chapelin in Paris, one of the few French galleries that supported artists from the École de Hanoï. The work then passed by family descent into a collection in northern France, where it remained for more than 25 years.
In Maternité, Lê Thi Luu portrays a mother in a saffron-yellow áo dài holding her child close, their faces nearly touching as the child looks outward toward the viewer. Painted in colored inks and white gouache on silk mounted on cardboard, the work measures 35.4 by 27.3 cm and is signed and dated lower left.
The painting belongs to the artist’s mature period, when her figures became more expressive and sensuous. Its soft, slightly blurred handling reflects her admiration for artists such as Renoir and Bonnard, while the delicate surface of silk gives the image a quiet luminosity.
Lê Thi Luu, born in Bắc Ninh in 1911, is widely recognized as the first professional woman painter of modern Vietnam. She studied at the École des Beaux-Arts d’Indochine in Hanoi, entering at age 15 as the only woman in her class. She graduated at the top of the class of 1933 and later settled permanently in France after traveling there for the 1937 International Exposition.
Alongside Lê Pho, Mai Trung Thu, and Vu Cao Dam, she was part of the group of Vietnamese artists trained in Hanoi who established important careers in France. Unlike her male contemporaries, however, Lê Thi Luu has long occupied a more discreet place in the market, despite her importance as a pioneer.
Her work combines European academic training with Vietnamese materials and traditions. In the 1950s, she abandoned oil painting and devoted herself to silk painting, developing a style that fused Western composition with the softness, absorption, and inner light of the Vietnamese medium.
The rediscovered Maternité reflects that synthesis. Its mother-and-child composition recalls Western devotional imagery, including Renaissance Madonnas, but its technique and atmosphere are distinctly Vietnamese. Rather than imitate European models, Lê Thi Luu transformed them through silk, ink, and a deeply intimate sense of tenderness.
Interest in artists from the École de Hanoï has grown sharply in recent years, driven by collectors in Vietnam, China, Singapore, and Europe. Lê Thi Luu’s silk maternities are among her most sought-after works, with comparable examples reportedly achieving between €320,000 and €590,000 at recent sales in France and Hong Kong.
The work will be exhibited in Lille on September 11 and 12 before the auction. It can also be viewed by appointment in Paris at Cabinet Chanoit, 12 rue Drouot, until early September.
The sale will take place on Saturday, September 12, 2026, at 2 p.m. at Espace Inkermann-Châtillon in Lille, with online bidding through Drouot Digital and Interenchères.
