Joseph Inguimberty (1896-1971) Still Life with Magnolia and FruitsPROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF PROFESSOR PAUL MUSJoseph Inguimberty (1896-1971)Still Life with Magnolia and Fruits signed with gallery label on the reverseoil on canvas59 by 90.8 cm.23 1/8 by 35 3/4 in.ProvenanceGalerie Romanet, Paris Private Collection of Professor Paul Mus (1902-1969) Acquired directly from the artist Thence by descent to the present owner 約瑟夫·恩桂波提 靜物（玉蘭花與水果） 簽名：INGUIMBERTY（左下） 油彩畫布 來源 巴黎Romanet畫廊 藏家直接購自藝術家本人 Paul Mus教授私人收藏 現藏家繼承自上述來源 Professor Paul Mus (1902-1969), an influential scholar, political advisor, and antiwar activist, was born in Brouges in 1902. He settled in Vietnam at the age of five when his parents inaugurated the Collège du Protectorat in Hanoi. In 1919, he moved back to France to pursue university and post-graduate studies in philosophy, philology, and Southeast Asian languages. Eight years later, Mus returned to Hanoi to take a position at the Ecole Française d'Extrême Orient, where he embarked on important scholarship on Southeast Asian languages, ancient Buddhist temple sites, and Cham culture, and subsequently taught the history of Indian religions at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris. During the Second World War, he served in France, Africa, and Vietnam, and earning two Croix de Guerre awards. Mus then served as the political advisor France's Indochine Committee and successive high commissioners to the region. In this capacity, Mus met directly with Ho Chi Minh in March 1946 to discuss France's ongoing role in Vietnam, and again on 12 May 1947 to present France's conditions for a ceasefire in Vietnam; the Viet Minh leader rejected France's position on both occasions. In the same years, Mus became director of the Ecole National de la France d'Outre-Mer and a professor at the Collège de France, both in Paris, before moving to the United States in 1951 to become a professor of Southeast Asian Civilizations at Yale University. In addition to academic contributions to the fields of Buddhism, comparative linguistics, and Southeast Asian studies, Mus was sharply critical of the dehumanizing and inhumane repercussions of France's colonial and imperial practices and published widely on the subject. Lot 20 - 22In 1925, the official opening of École des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine (EBAI) in colonial Hanoi marked the beginning of a new chapter in Vietnam's modern history. This art academy, co-founded by its first director Victor Tardieu and the Vietnamese artist Nguyen Nam Son, played a seminal role in the development of modern Vietnamese art. The French artist Joseph Inguimberty, born in Marseille in 1896, was one of the first teachers at the EBAI and went on to have a thriving teaching career there for over two decades until the school was closed in 1945 after the Japanese coup. Inguimberty, together with Victor Tardieu and other fellow teachers, trained a pioneering generation of Vietnamese artists and laid the foundation for the growth of modern art in Vietnam by merging the elements and techniques of Western art with local themes and mediums. More importantly, Inguimberty was a key figure in the renaissance of Vietnamese lacquer art. Alongside his colleague Alix Aymé, he opened a lacquer painting workshop at the EBAI, which had a lasting and profound impact on the artistic approach adopted by EBAI students; this influence would come to shape the evolution of Vietnamese lacquer painting as a fine art form. During his Hanoi years, Inguimberty was deeply intrigued and inspired by Vietnam's natural landscapes as well as its people and culture. The pastoral landscapes that he created at the time often capture the enduring allure of Hanoi and its surrounding environs. Lot 20 Ba Vi Mountain Range from the Son Tay Rice Fields is one such example, which vividly portrays local peasants and their daily activities amidst luxuriant terraced paddy fields near Hanoi. In addition, the distinctive silhouette of the Ba Vi Mountain range in the far ground and its reflection in the water embrace the mysterious beauty of this sacred site, regarded as "the lord of mountains" by the Vietnamese. Inguimberty was forced to return to France in 1946. He moved to Menton—his wife's hometown—while keeping a pied-à-terre in Marseille. The paintings that he made at the time drew inspirations from the breathtaking natural landscapes in southern France, as shown in Lot 21 Still Life with Magnolia and Fruits and Lot 22 Marina. Yet, these works seem to be very much reminiscent of his Indochinese adventure. For instance, Lot 21 Still Life with Magnolia and Fruits depicts a stalk of beautiful thunbergia—native to Vietnam—in an exquisite Vietnamese blue-and-white porcelain vase on the balcony table. Most of Inguimberty's works, including Lot 20 Ba Vi Mountain Range from the Son Tay Rice Fields, Lot 21 Still Life with Magnolia and Fruits, and Lot 22 Marina from the collection of Professor Paul Mus, are dedicated to painting en plein air. The three present lots, characterised by the artist's luminous palettes and dynamic brushwork, display the brilliance of plein-air painting with a focus on the atmospheric interplay of colour and radiant outdoor light. The serene and naturalistic qualities of these picturesque works further evoke a timeless sense of tranquillity and harmony. Inguimberty's art not only reveals splendour in the ordinary but also reflects his sincere appreciation for the Vietnamese way of life.