A work of late Vietnamese painter Nguyen Phan Chanh was sold last month for HK$3.03 million (US$390,000) in Hong Kong by Christie’s International, one of the world’s largest fine-art auction houses.

The painting, titled La Marchand de Riz (The Rice Seller) was bought by Pascal de Sarth, a French art collector living Hong Kong.

It has established a record for a Vietnamese painting. Previously, a drawing of late artist Le Pho was sold at around US$373,000 at an auction in Hong Kong last April.

“La marchande de riz illustrates perfectly the talent of a painter at his best, painting the simple but evocative subjects of commoners engaged in small trades or other equally timeless moments in Vietnamese life,” Christie introduced the work and its author.

Drawn in 1932, “La Marchand de Riz” was initially priced at US$75 since it was mistakenly identified as an unsigned work. Later, some Asian fine art experts detected the author’s signature on the back of the painting and re-estimated it at the price of HK$800,000 to HK$1 million.

According to Christie, Nguyen Phan Chanh painted the drawing when he was 40 years old and had just graduated from the Indochina Fine Art School only two years before in 1930 as the eldest of the graduating students from the first class.

“Nguyen Phan Chanh applies a style of his own with strong and solid masses, for example the hat of the seller or her huge basket, with no superfluous decoration, in a style close to traditional and popular Vietnamese woodcuts,” Christie added.

Other works by painter Nguyen Phan Chanh was also listed on Christie’s International’s website, including “Bather,” “Kindergarten” and “Crab Catcher”, with prices realized at US$20,016, US$41,135 and US$12,650, respectively.

Born in 1892 in the northern province of Ha Tinh, Chanh who died in 1984 in Hanoi has been recognized as a prominent painter of Indochinese painting. He taught at many universities, including the Hanoi Fine Arts University.

During his career, Nguyen Phan Chanh created 170 works and scored a record for a painter with the most works exhibited at the Vietnam National Fine Arts Museum so far.

When he passed away in 1984 in Hanoi, his contributions to the artistic heritage of Vietnam was suitably recognized when he received government’s Ho Chi Minh Prize in Literature and Art.