Exhibition of King Ham Nghi's paintings at Hue Imperial City

More than 20 paintings by King Ham Nghi will be exhibited at Kien Trung Palace ( Hue Imperial City) at the end of March.

The event is named Sky, Mountains, Water , taking place for two weeks from March 25, marks the second time that King Ham Nghi's paintings have been exhibited in the country. Compared to the first time at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum in November 2024, the exhibition is larger in scale, with more than 20 paintings from 10 private collections. According to the organizers, the program is non-commercial (no paintings are traded), open to visitors. The works are appraised, preserved and restored by leading experts.

"Wheat Field" (1913), 31 x 39 cm, oil on canvas. Photo: Lynda Trouvé

Mr. Ace Le - co-curator - said that King Ham Nghi was one of the first two Vietnamese painters (along with Le Van Mien) to be trained in Western academic methods, playing a pioneering role in modern fine arts in the country. "His paintings are a combination of his artistic talent and his love for his country, where he expressed his nostalgia for his homeland and his hidden resistance to oppression during his time in French exile," Ace Le said.

PhD Amandine Dabat - the king's fifth-generation descendant - co-curator. She was the first to organize an exhibition of his paintings in France in May 2022, and also contributed to the repatriation of the former king's works, such as the Lake in the Alps.

Mr. Hoang Viet Trung - Director of the Hue Monuments Conservation Center, the coordinating organization - said that the exhibition and introduction of King Ham Nghi's works will help the younger generation better understand the country's history and culture, thereby raising awareness of heritage preservation. The event took place during the time Hue hosted the event. National Tourism Year, combining city festival and 50th anniversary of provincial liberation (March 26, 1975 - March 26, 2025).

"Dawn on the Lake" (circa 1910), 24.5 x 32.5 cm, oil on canvas. Photo: Lynda Trouvé

King Ham Nghi (1871-1944) whose real name was Nguyen Phuc Minh, with the courtesy name Ung Lich, ascended the throne in 1884, at the age of 13. He was the eighth emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty. In 1885, after the fall of the capital Hue, King Ham Nghi and Ton That Thuyet left the capital and issued the Can Vuong edict against the French colonialists. In 1888, the king was captured and exiled by the French to Alger (capital of Algeria). He died in 1944 of stomach cancer.

Painting talent The king's artistic interests were discovered during his exile. During his artistic career, the king held three exhibitions: at the Musée Guimet (June 1904), Galerie Mantelet (November 1911), Galerie Mantelet - Colette Weil (November 1926). He considered art as a personal pleasure, helping him forget the reality of being deposed. According to Asian Art , the king did not seek public recognition, and had little interest in signing or dating his works. King Ham Nghi never sold any of his works.

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