''Countryside Village Among Banana Trees'' - million dollar painting by Nguyen Gia Tri

The figure is more than five times higher than the initial estimate, set at the Art classique, moderne et contemporain session of Drouot Estimations in December 2022. Villageoises parmi des bananiers (Village among banana trees) is a six-panel screen, lacquer on wood panel, measuring 195x100 cm.

On a black background, the artist depicts thatched houses, a group of women wearing Ao Tu Than carrying shoulder poles, and a group of people standing around buying and selling in dark and light red-brown tones. The foreground is painted with gold and red banana trees, creating a strong contrast. The artist handles the work gently and delicately. Details such as women wearing Ao Tu Than, cows, houses, trees... are full of rural character.

According to Drouot, the work is special for two reasons: The clear relief of the banana trees - rarely seen in Gia Tri's paintings, and the unusual signature. In the lower right corner of the work, there is a capital G - one of the first three letters of the artist's name - integrated with the three letters IAT, and the year 1937. According to the auction house, this is also a factor that contributed to the high price of the work. In addition, the artist used many complex lacquer techniques, requiring delicate skills.

The painting Village Among Banana Trees was purchased from the artist by the current owner's grandmother in 1937. It remained in the family until it was auctioned in December 2022.

Art researcher Ngo Kim Khoi commented that the work is beautiful, large in size and with Nguyen Gia Tri's reputation, the million-dollar price tag is not too surprising, and is even low. He expected the work to reach over two million dollars.

"The gold color on the black background gives the painting depth. He did not use eggshells but gilded it to create a splendid look. The style of painting the foreground is a tree, the background is a pagoda, the village is often seen in paintings by artists from the Indochina College of Fine Arts. The artist also handled each detail well with a strong Vietnamese character such as: women wearing a four-panel dress carrying a shoulder pole...", Mr. Khoi said.

Nguyen Gia Tri was born in 1908 in Chuong My, Hanoi, graduated from the Indochina College of Fine Arts in 1936. He is one of the Four Great Masters of Vietnamese Painting: "First Tri, second Van, third Lan, fourth Can". He organized his first exhibitions in 1939-1940.

He is considered one of the leading painters in creating a new trend in lacquer art. He contributed to bringing Vietnamese lacquer to its peak with the combination of traditional Asian cultural elements of the Vietnamese people on lacquer material and Western academic painting methods.

The artist once opened a large studio with a large team of workers. He produced a series of works with sophisticated materials and strict quality such as screens, wardrobes, panels... Nature and landscapes of the country were the main themes of Nguyen Gia Tri. The artist achieved much success, many high-ranking officials and French businessmen in Indochina came to the studio and bought his works.

In 1989, Nguyen Gia Tri was recognized by the Ministry of Culture as one of the contemporary artists who contributed to the development of modern Vietnamese visual arts. He died in Ho Chi Minh City in 1993. He was posthumously awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize for Literature and Arts in 2012. The artist has two works recognized as national treasures: Spring Garden of Central, South and North at the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts and Screen at the Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts.