Biography of Nguyen Phan Chanh
Nguyen Phan Chanh (1892-1984) was born in Bat Tien hamlet, Trung Tiet commune, Thach Ha district, Ha Tinh province.
According to the family members of painter Nguyen Phan Chanh, he has the ability to earn money from a young age.
In 1922, he graduated from the College of Hue. After that, he stayed there to teach at Dong Ba Hue Primary School. In 1925, Nguyen Phan Chanh was a student of the first class of Indochina Fine Arts College, studying with Le Pho, Le Van De, Mai Trung Thu, Cong Van Trung, Georges Khanh (sculpture). In 1928, In 1928, he became the first Vietnamese painter to have a painting reproduced on a postage stamp in France . It was titled Nguoi Di Cay (Transplanters in the Field).
In 1929, when he was a student at the Indochina Fine Arts College, Nguyen Phan Chanh participated in the contest of drawing stamps of Indochina Post and the picture he drew of a farmer with his pants rolled up, crouching and planting rice won first prize in the contest. The prize money for the contest was quite large: 90 Dong Duong Dong. At that time, with this money, one could buy more than 3 tons of rice.
After winning a prize for his work in Paris in 1931, he built a career as a lecturer of fine arts.
Nguyen Phan Chanh’s Career
Silk has long been known as a high-class material only for kings and nobility. Painting on silk is a high-class art, which needs a lot of meticulousness, requiring the painter to have mastery and virtuosity.
Silk paintings by Nguyen Phan Chanh are cared for in every detail. Each work is filled with all his thoughts and feelings. Even when finished, he did not feel secure but had to include a few lines of poetry to express the feelings and ideas of that painting. This is also a unique feature in each of his works, we can not only enjoy a work of an artist but also enjoy a poet’s work.
At the same time, it is this habit that helped his works to restrict much less copying. This is a headache problem in the art world today. Because it is not easy to copy the line of drawing, but it will be even more difficult to copy the handwriting.
Not only that, behind each of his paintings is a story in it. He also meticulously shared each story and process to complete his work. But through this story, we see that it is not easy to create a work. He put a lot of heart and love into it.
In 1931, Nguyen Phan Chanh created the silk painting ” Playing Mandarin square capturing” along with some other paintings such as “A girl washes vegetables”, “Baby feeds a bird”, “Lên đồng”. Also this year, at the Paris exhibition, some silk paintings by Nguyen Phan Chanh were brought to France by Director Victor Tardieu. For the first time, the French public knew about Vietnamese silk paintings through Nguyen Phan Chanh. Some silk paintings of Nguyen Phan Chanh were exhibited in Milan (Italy) in 1934, in San Francisco (USA) in 1937, in Tokyo (Japan) in 1940. After the exhibition in Paris, painter Nguyen Phan Chanh is considered to be the pioneer of modern Vietnamese silk painting.
Nguyen Phan Chanh‘s Highlighted Artworks
Although his works were released a long time ago, they are still very welcome today. They even make waves in art exhibitions and auctions.
Nguyen Phan Chanh’s silk painting Em be ben chu chim (Child with Bird) was sold at highest price for a painting by any Vietnamese artist sold by Christie’s Hong Kong auction house and in the world. This is the highest price for a painting by any Vietnamese artist sold by the auction house and in the world.
Here are some of his famous artworks:
• La Marchande de Ôc
• Enfant à I’oiseau
• Nguoi Di Cay…
