Young Girl With A Banana Tree - Mai Thu - Oil On Canvas, Signed - Vietnam - Indochina

Young girl near a banana tree - Mai Thu - Oil on Canvas - Vietnam - Indochina

This painter remains a mystery. His works, initially attributed to Mai Trung Thu in his youth production before his departure for France in 1943, being rejected by his family, were reattributed to a certain Nguyen Mai Thu. This attribution is very questionable, not to say fanciful, because to date no one knows the slightest biographical element of this character and the signature of his paintings has never included the surname Nguyen or the initial N. This name of Nguyen Mai Thu appeared from who knows where for the first time on sale in 2017 and is easily picked up from now on with each appearance of a new painting bearing this signature, as it is true that the nature has a horror of emptiness. In any case, the very European style of these paintings suggests that he was formed through contact with French teachers, probably within the Hanoi School of Fine Arts, given the location of his landscapes. His production, concerning only oils on canvas, is mostly located in Tonkin and sometimes dated, between 1933 and 1950. He generally signs "M.Thu", but two paintings dated 1934 and 1935 are signed "mai thu". The very beautiful portrait presented here is all the more remarkable as Mai Thu's portraits are much rarer than his landscapes.