Scenes of Old Vietnam

This series of nine watercolors is absolutely unique in Vietnamese painting: they can be dated around 1930-1935 when the painter who graduated from the Fine-art School of Hanoi in 1931 and became successful the same year during the Colonial exhibition in Paris, continued his work painting in a very typical Hanoian style. He was known for his photorealistic technique of painting. When he entered the Fine art School in 1926, he kept enriching his techniques using watercolors instead of laquer or gouache on silk to pursue his work and faithfully captured the old Hanoi atmosphere, specifically the northern district of Hoan Kiem. one can notice the odd jobs of old Hanoi – a seller of Pho, a fortune teller with coins, transporters, wood carvers, traders selling different utensils in the colorful world near the Long Bien bridge or the Dong Xuan market.

Jean-François Hubert
(Senior Consultant, Vietnamese art)