In the world of fine arts, there are very famous paintings by famous artists, but we often only see them in documents, through books, through the stories of some figures of the previous generation. Especially with works bearing a strong historical mark, having high artistic value, honoring the theme of “national heroism-patriotism”, art lovers often wish to have the chance to see them directly. Because the emotions of love for the homeland, about the heroic history often leave a deep impression, inspiring viewers.
Portrait of artist Nguyễn Sáng at his young age
Among those, the lacquer painting ‘Vietnamese women’ created by Nguyễn Sáng in 1976 when he was in Hà Nội, is one of his outstanding works about nationalism in particular and of Việt Nam in general.
Nguyễn Sáng had portrayed a typical and representative portrait of a “Vietnamese woman”, full of vitality, with a gentle face, and a proud personality, a strong quality of Nguyễn Sáng. Nguyễn Sáng used the portrait of a young woman as the foreground, occupying nearly half of the painting’s surface as a symbol for modern women. The background represents a message from the past- the image of two generals Trưng Trắc and Trưng Nhị, inspired by Đông Hồ folk painting “Hai Bà Trưng”. It can be seen that he reused almost the original of this folk painting as a background. It has become a structure that connects the past and the present as writer Dương Tường wrote about Nguyễn Sáng painting being “deeply rooted in national tradition”.
NGUYỄN SÁNG (1923-1988). Vietnamese women. 1976. Lacquer. 80 x 50 cm
Printed in the book ‘Nguyễn Sáng’, published in 1996.
The painting has a moderate size, 50 × 80 cm on lacquer material with traditional color and a red background as the main theme. With just the image of a typical Vietnamese young woman- of the 20th century and the story of two woman generals Trưng Trắc and Trưng Nhị- 1984 years ago, holding swords and riding elephants into battle, we can see the connection of history in the flow of Vietnamese tradition- fighting to protect the country.
A painting is considered representative and typical if it conveys great messages. With “Vietnamese women”, Nguyễn Sáng had expressed patriotism from generation to generation. Nguyễn Sáng is a great painter of nationalism with all the qualities of “Realism- heroic, dramatic, lyrical, tragic… to shine a kind of optimism…” (according to writer Dương Tường).
In addition to the value of “Vietnamese women” itself, the painting has a very rich collection life. Initially, “Vietnamese women” belonged to the collection of Mr. Hanh- a Vietnamese expatriate in Paris. In 1993, the painting belonged to the collection of Mr. Trần Hậu Tuấn. After that, the painting was owned by a Korean with a rather important position. After his death, his wife was given the right to inherit and transferred the collection to Mr. Koo Sambon- a Korean collector who owns valuable works of Vietnamese painting.
The work Vietnamese women has arrived in Hà Nội.
Currently, “Vietnamese women” has returned to Hà Nội from Korea. It is currently owned by Mr. Nguyễn Minh.
Before “Vietnamese women” and several other very famous paintings (we will write about later) returned to Việt Nam, Mr. Nguyễn Minh invited the art director of Viet Art View to share information. As soon as the painting arrived in Hà Nội, we went to see this valuable work in person. We respectfully introduce to art lovers a rare and valuable lacquer work by artist Nguyễn Sáng which has returned to Việt Nam.
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