Nguyễn PHAN CHANH (1892-1984). Young woman reading. Watercolor and gouache on silk. Signature, artist's stamp and date, top and bottom left. H_60 cm W_38 cm, lateral and vertical cracks, slight scattered loss. Provenance: Second exhibition of the Société Annamite d'Encouragement à l'Art et à l'Industrie (SADEAI), Hanoi, inaugurated December 3, 1936. Further information available on request from our auction house. French private collection, acquired in an antiques store in Nice in the 1970s, then passed on by descent. Expert: Mr. Etienne Leterrier. Note: The rediscovery of "Jeune femme à la lecture", a painting on silk by Nguyễn Phan Chánh dated 1936, is a major event, as the work illustrates a transitional period for the painter. Around 1933-1934, his palette became lighter. His subjects, previously often rural, became more refined. Touches of vivid color make their appearance. Group evocations often gave way to individual figures. "Young Woman Reading" is a perfect example of this evolution. But above all, by painting a young woman reading, Nguyễn Phan Chánh sends out a strong signal by inscribing himself, as a Vietnamese painter, in one of the great themes of art history, which runs from medieval iconography to Van Gogh, Picasso, Vermeer, Fragonard or Renoir. The young woman's finely traced white áo dài evokes the artist's masterpiece "Jeune femme en train de se peigner" (Young woman combing her hair) in the Musée Cernuschi collections. Seated on an ornate bench, she devotes herself to reading, a moment of intimacy and silence that catches the viewer's eye. Her book comes from a cabinet to her left, on which rest a night-light and a religious statue: objects that draw the eye and invite another reading, this one symbolic. The face is lowered onto the book, giving body to the gaze. The reader is wearing a kiềng, heeled mules: indications of social rank confirmed by the refined distinction of the position of the feet. The pale glow of this silhouette standing out against a dark background is typical of the painter's aesthetic turn, and expresses all the virtues dear to him: modesty, virtue, devotion, and, here, unquestionable refinement. A graduate of Indochina's Ecole des Beaux-Arts since 1930, Nguyễn Phan Chánh's reputation has grown since the 1931 Colonial Exhibition: of all the artists present, he was the one who received the highest praise from the metropolitan press. This critical success was coupled with commercial success, as Nguyễn Phan Chánh alone sold 20,000 francs worth of paintings at the Exhibition, a third of the total amount received by the school's artists. Encouraged by this success, the school's director Victor Tardieu arranged for his students' work to feature in other artistic events: exhibitions in Naples, Rome, at the Agence économique de l'Indochine in Paris, and above all the exhibitions of the Société Annamite d'Encouragement à l'Art et à l'Industrie (SADEAI), the second of which opened in Hanoi on December 3, 1936. It was in a photograph taken at this 1936 SADEAI Salon that "Jeune femme à la lecture" featured prominently among works by Nguyễn Phan Chánh, some unknown, others already listed: the work is slightly larger and hung just above "La femme dans la rizière", sold at Christie's on November 24, 2019. This essential work, testifying to the talent of a painter then at his zenith, has remained unpublished since its hanging at the 1936 exhibition.