Le Pho

Vietnamese/French, 1907-2001

Le Pho was born in 1907 in Hà Đông, Vietnam, into a prominent family during the French colonial era. He trained at the École des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine in Hanoi, where he was among the first generation of Vietnamese artists to receive formal academic instruction. In 1937, he relocated to Paris, beginning a lifelong career that bridged cultures and helped define modern Vietnamese art in the global stage.

Le Pho developed a distinctive visual language that harmonized Eastern aesthetics with European modernism. Working in both silk and oil, he depicted women in flowing áo dài, floral still lifes, and tranquil gardens, drawing influence from Impressionism, Surrealism, and traditional Chinese painting. His compositions are marked by soft contours, delicate palette, and a meditative sense of space.

He exhibited widely in Europe, North Africa, and the United States, becoming one of the most internationally recognized Vietnamese painters of the 20th century. In Paris, he was represented by Galerie Romanet, which helped establish his market among collectors in France and abroad. Le Pho continued to paint into his nineties, and today his work remains highly collected for its serene beauty, cultural hybridity, and historical significance in the development of modern Vietnamese art.