This is an original lithograph, entitled "La Recreation", label on reverse. Despite having lived in France for the majority of his life, Mai Thu retained a strong sense of patriotism and devotion to the mores from his homeland, finding delight in incorporating Vietnamese subject matter to his art. This artist embodies a generation of progressive Vietnamese artists that emerged during the 1930s, including Le Pho and Vu Cao Dam. Seven years after graduating from the École des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine in Hanoi, Mai Thu moved to Paris where he began merging the French Salon style with Vietnamese aesthetic traditions. Also a film-maker and photographer, Mai Thu exposes his penchant for these fields of art in his ambrosial yet theatrical work. Though he seemingly depicts a simple theme within a single scene, Mai Thu imbues an element of drama to the work through the use of body language and composition, suggesting there is evidently far more to the narrative. Distinguished for his pithy and precise brushwork, Mai Thu employs thin black lines to delineate the soft curves of the stylized figures. Mai Thu was a prolific artist, who found deep joy in portraying the lovely moments that he may have remembered occurring far away in his homeland. Overall size: 19 x 38 in Sight size: 10 3/4 x 30 in