Trịnh Văn (born in 1917) A poetic vision of the Vietnamese landscape in lacquer, 1943
- Cabinet Gauchet Art Asiatique
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Presented in the Asian Art sale organized on June 24, 2026 in Cannes with the expertise of Gauchet Art Asiatique, this important lacquer by Trịnh Văn, dated 1943, perfectly illustrates the refinement of mid-20th-century Vietnamese modernist painting. The work is featured prominently on the official sale poster, attesting to its significance within the selection.
With its deep red tones, golden highlights, and landscapes bathed in an almost ethereal light, this composition immediately immerses the viewer in an idealized, silent, and contemplative Vietnam. Geometric rice paddies meander between the hills, while a few discreet architectural structures appear in the mountains like distant presences.
Created in 1943, this work belongs to an essential period in the history of modern Vietnamese art, when artists of the generation of the École des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine profoundly transformed the traditional use of lacquer into a true pictorial medium.
The Indochina School of Fine Arts and the birth of modern Vietnamese painting
Founded in Hanoi in 1925 by the French painter Victor Tardieu and the Vietnamese artist Nguyễn Nam Sơn, the École des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine marked a fundamental break in the artistic history of Vietnam.
The aim of this institution was to create a synthesis between Western academic teaching and Vietnamese artistic traditions. Very quickly, Vietnamese artists developed an original pictorial language blending European techniques, Asian aesthetics, and Vietnamese cultural identity.
It was in this context that the great revolution of modern Vietnamese lacquer appeared.
Before this period, lacquer was primarily used in the decorative arts: furniture, religious objects, ornamental panels, and architecture. Artists at the École des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine then began to experiment with this complex material as a painting support in its own right.
Major figures such as Nguyễn Gia Trí, Phạm Hậu, Trần Văn Cẩn or Nguyễn Khang pushed this technique to an exceptional level of sophistication.
An extremely complex technique
Vietnamese lacquer painting is one of the most demanding artistic techniques in Asia.
Unlike oil painting executed directly on canvas, lacquer requires a very slow and methodical process. Artists successively apply different layers of natural resin, pigments, gold or silver leaf, before gradually polishing the surface to reveal the deeper layers.
This process can require weeks, or even several months of work.
The characteristic effects of depth, transparency and internal light inherent in large Vietnamese lacquerware come precisely from this layering and successive polishing of the surface.
In this work by Trịnh Văn, the gold highlights play a central role. The rice paddies, certain foliage, and the luminous areas of the landscape seem almost to radiate from within the material.
The palette, blending reddish-browns, deep blacks, silvery greys and golds, is typical of the great Vietnamese lacquers of the years 1930-1945.
Trịnh Văn and the generation of Vietnamese modernist painters
Trịnh Văn belongs to that generation of Vietnamese artists who worked in the aesthetic wake of the École des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine during the 1930s and 1940s.
Although his name is less well known internationally today than those of Lê Phổ, Mai-Thu or Vũ Cao Đàm, his works demonstrate a true mastery of the decorative and atmospheric effects characteristic of great Vietnamese lacquer.
In this composition dated 1943, the artist develops an almost meditative vision of the Vietnamese landscape.
The scene does not strive for documentary realism. The landscape becomes a poetic construction where nature seems suspended in a timeless light. The mountains appear as mineral masses while the trees dissolve into exquisitely refined decorative patterns.
The small buildings nestled in the hills reinforce this impression of silence and remoteness.
The influence of classical Asian landscapes is perceptible, but entirely reinterpreted in a Vietnamese modernist language.
An aesthetic blending Asian tradition and modernity
One of the most fascinating aspects of modernist Vietnamese painting lies precisely in this fusion between Asian heritage and pictorial modernity.
Vietnamese artists of this generation did not seek to imitate Western painting. On the contrary, they developed an independent aesthetic where:
Asian decorative composition remains fundamental.
The spaces are deliberately flattened.
atmospheric effects replace the western perspective,
Matter becomes a poetic element.
The light seems to emerge from within the work itself.
In this lacquer by Trịnh Văn, the upper golden sky acts almost as an abstract background. It does not simply depict a sunset or natural light: it structures the entire composition and transforms the landscape into an inner vision.
The curves of the rice paddies also introduce an extremely controlled graphic rhythm that balances the dark masses of the trees and mountains.
The international market for Vietnamese paint
For the past fifteen years or so, the international market has been strongly rediscovering 20th-century Vietnamese artists.
The leading figures of the Indochina School of Fine Arts are currently experiencing a spectacular rise in popularity. Major works by Nguyễn Gia Trí are now fetching considerable sums in international sales, while paintings by Lê Phổ, Mai-Thu, and Vũ Cao Đàm are among the most sought-after modern Asian works on the market.
This dynamic also benefits rarer or less documented artists belonging to this historical generation.
International Vietnamese collectors, particularly active in Hong Kong, Paris, Singapore or Hanoi, are now seeking works representative of this foundational period of Vietnamese modernity.
Antique lacquers from the 1930s-1945 period are particularly prized for:
their technical sophistication,
their rarity,
their decorative power,
their historical importance,
and their often fragile state of preservation.
In Trịnh Văn's case, public results remain relatively rare, which increases collectors' interest when important works reappear on the market.
An emblematic work of modernist Vietnamese lacquer
With its ambitious composition, refined palette and silent atmosphere, this important lacquer by Trịnh Văn perfectly illustrates the richness of mid-20th century Vietnamese modernist painting.
The work bears witness to this exceptional period during which Vietnamese artists succeeded in creating a completely original aesthetic language, at the crossroads of Asian traditions and international modernity.
More than just a landscape, this composition appears as a poetic vision of Vietnam, transformed by the technical refinement and meditative depth characteristic of great Vietnamese lacquerware.
Comments