The Landscape of Upper Tonkin by Pham Hau

La Gazette Drouot
Published on

A subject dear to the Vietnamese painter, the rapids at Cho-Bo, near Hanoi, inspired this shimmering lacquer panel. Pham Hau (1903-1995), Les Rapides de Cho-Bo (The Cho-Bo Rapids), lacquer, gold, silver and crushed mother-of-pearl highlights, signed, 99.8 x 199.4 cm/39.2 x 78.5 in.Estimate: €400,000/600,000 Born in the village of Dong Ngac—now a district of Hanoi—Pham Hau was well acquainted with the Cho-Bo rapids, which were only a few dozen kilometers away on the Black River. Nearly 900 kilometers (559 miles) long, the river takes its name from the dark waters that flow through the coal-rich region. Today, tamed by hydroelectric dams, it rushes down the

More in the auction industry