Celebrating the 110th anniversary of the birth of painter To Ngoc Van.

On December 14th, in Hanoi, the Vietnam Fine Arts Association celebrated the 110th anniversary of the birth of painter To Ngoc Van (December 15, 1906 - December 15, 2016). Painter To Ngoc Van graduated from the second class of the Indochina College of Fine Arts. He was a talented and renowned painter even before the August Revolution, known for his oil paintings, lacquer paintings, silk paintings, and more.

He was one of the first artists to creatively embrace Western art, while also inheriting national traditions to create high-quality works, such as "Boat on the Perfume River," "Girl with Lilies," "Girl with Lotus Flowers," etc. His painting "Girl and Two Children" was even recognized as a national treasure (2013).

Portrait of painter Tô Ngọc Vân.

Responding to President Ho Chi Minh's nationwide call for resistance, painter To Ngoc Van, along with many other artists, went to the Viet Bac resistance zone to live among the people and soldiers. There, he created many lacquer paintings and sketches of the Northwest region, including watercolor sketches of farmers during the 1953 land reform...

Despite living for only 48 years and having worked for 28 years, painter To Ngoc Van was a masterful and erudite artist. Along with painter Nguyen Do Cung, he laid the foundation for the field of art theory and criticism, contributing to the training of many talented painters belonging to the first generation of Vietnamese fine arts.

The painting "Girl and Two Children" was classified as a national treasure (2013).

Art critic Nguyen Hai Yen stated: "The hallmarks left by painter To Ngoc Van are that he paved the way for a perspective that not every artist possesses. Because To Ngoc Van's perspective did not simply reproduce a pre-existing reality from the outside world, but rather incorporated his personal tendencies and feelings into his works."

His statement was: "A beautiful painting is not only about real life but also about the inner feelings expressed by the artist." We see that To Ngoc Van began to place the role of the artist, rather than a mere record-teller of reality, into his works.

Painter Tô Ngọc Vân is honored as one of the four great masters of modern Vietnamese art, along with Nguyễn Gia Trí, Nguyễn Tường Lân, and Trần Văn Cẩn. He was one of the eight leading Vietnamese painters to receive the first Hồ Chí Minh Prize.

According to VOV