Bùi Xuân Phái (1920–1988): painting the soul of Old Hanoi
- Cabinet Gauchet Art Asiatique
- Jun 18
- 3 min read
In the 20th-century Vietnamese artistic landscape, Bùi Xuân Phái remains a central and intensely evocative figure. Through a work deeply rooted in the visual memory of Old Hanoi, he embodies a form of Vietnamese artistic humanism , where the everyday, the silence of the streets and the modest beauty of ordinary places acquire a poetic and universal power. Contrary to the grand official narratives or decorative effects, Phái develops a painting of withdrawal, of urban melancholy, but also of intimate resistance.
Bùi Xuân Phái was born in Hanoi in 1920. In 1941, he entered the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine , founded by Victor Tardieu and Joseph Inguimberty , where he trained at the crossroads of Western pictorial tradition and Asian sensibilities. He was influenced by the aesthetics of Fauvism, Expressionism and French modernity, but he nonetheless remained deeply rooted in Vietnamese culture.
His beginnings coincided with a troubled period: the Second World War, the Japanese occupation, the struggle for Vietnamese independence, and then the civil war. From 1957, after supporting the publication of a critical journal, he was excluded from official exhibitions for nearly ten years . This banishment pushed him to paint in seclusion, in a modest studio, far from institutional scrutiny. He nevertheless continued to create, occasionally publishing in newspapers, producing portraits, landscapes, and especially his famous views of Old Hanoi.
Bùi Xuân Phái's world is one of narrow streets, sloping roofs, closed shutters, cracked walls . He tirelessly paints the alleys of Hanoi's old quarter — Pho Co — with their old-fashioned charms, their suspended silences. This is not a decorative picturesque: Phái's gaze is melancholic, deeply introspective . The houses seem alive, leaning under the weight of time. Architecture becomes an emotional body . The emptiness of the streets reflects an absence: that of a world in the process of disappearing.
This poetics of silence has often been compared to the research of Giorgio Morandi , or even to the world of Japanese prints. But Phái's painting is profoundly Vietnamese, both in its iconography and in its pictorial rhythm: it is a painting of slowness, of contemplation, of urban memory .
Bùi Xuân Phái's style is immediately recognizable. Thick, sinuous lines, simplified geometry, a palette reduced to ochres, grays, and blues. He often paints on poor supports: old paper, cardboard, newspapers. The gesture is direct, almost raw, without unnecessary effects. This formal stripping gives his works a raw emotional force , a silent density. Some critics speak of "pháiism" ( trường phái Phái ) to describe this very personal style.
However, he does not confine himself to a single theme: he also paints scenes from traditional theatre ( tuồng ), nudes and portraits. In all these subjects, it is always the human presence , often discreet, even physically absent, which inhabits the canvas.
Phái's career is also that of an ethically engaged artist, refusing aesthetic compromises. In a context dominated by socialist realism, he remains faithful to a non-ideological vision of art: a deeply personal, silent art, without slogans , but which bears witness to a changing society. He is, in this sense, one of the rare Vietnamese artists of this period to have been able to maintain a form of inner modernity in the face of the imposed artistic norm.
Phái, who died in 1988, left behind an immense body of work that is still partly unknown. His studio was preserved by his family, notably his son Bùi Thanh Phương , himself a painter. His works are featured in major Vietnamese collections (Hanoi Museum of Fine Arts) but also in private collections in Europe and Asia.
Since the 2000s, his paintings have been the subject of renewed interest on the international Asian art market.
Discover three of these paintings in our upcoming auction on June 19, 2025, Collector's World Tour: Asian & Oriental Arts (lots 17, 18 and 19).
Academic references
Nora A. Taylor , Painters in Hanoi: An Ethnography of Vietnamese Art , University of Hawai'i Press, 2009.
Catherine Noppe , Arts of Vietnam: Collections of the Mariemont Museum , Éditions du Patrimoine, 2002.
Nicolas Henry , “The Shadow of the Alleys: Bùi Xuân Phái and the Invention of the Modern Vietnamese Gaze”, Revue des Mondes Asiatiques , 2020.
Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts , permanent collections catalog, Hanoi, 2018.
Laurent Danchin , Vietnamese Painters of Yesterday and Today , Paris, L'Harmattan, 2015.
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