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

On December 14, 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 2nd class of the Indochina College of Fine Arts. He was a talented painter, famous before the August Revolution, with works on oil, lacquer, silk...

He was one of the first painters to creatively absorb Western art, inheriting national traditions to create high-quality works, typically: "Boat on the Perfume River", "Girl with lilies", "Girl with lotus"... In particular, his painting "Girl and two babies" was ranked as a national treasure (2013).

Portrait of painter To Ngoc Van.

In response to President Ho Chi Minh's call for national resistance, artist To Ngoc Van and many other artists went to the Viet Bac resistance base to live in the hearts of the people and soldiers. Here, he created many lacquer paintings and sketches of the Northwest, and watercolor sketches of farmers during the land reform in 1953...

At only 48 years old and 28 years of experience, painter To Ngoc Van is a master artist with great knowledge. Together with painter Nguyen Do Cung, he laid the foundation for the field of Fine Arts Criticism, contributing to the training of many talented painters of the first generation of Vietnamese Fine Arts.

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

Art critic Nguyen Hai Yen said: "The marks that painter To Ngoc Van left behind are paving the way for a perspective that not every artist has. Because To Ngoc Van's perspective does not recreate an existing reality in real life but brings into his works personal tendencies and feelings.

His statement was: A beautiful painting is not only about life but also about the inner feelings of the author. We see how To Ngoc Van has begun to put the role of an artist, not a copyist of reality, into his work.

Painter To Ngoc Van was honored as one of the four great painters of modern Vietnamese art, along with Nguyen Gia Tri, Nguyen Tuong Lan, and Tran Van Can. He was one of the eight leading Vietnamese painters honored to receive the first Ho Chi Minh Prize.

According to VOV