MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS OF VIET NAM

The museum is located in the immediate vicinity of the Temple of Literature, in a building where East and West mingle. Built in the 1930s, it housed the Jeanne d'Arc boarding school, a renowned girls' high school in colonial times. After the refurbishment of the premises, the museum was inaugurated on 6 June 1966. Covering more than 4,700^m2, the works on display cover a period from prehistory to the present day. A rare opportunity for those interested in Vietnamese art to be offered a panorama that is both chronological and embraces all techniques (ceramics, sculpture, lacquer, painting on silk, mulberry paper, popular arts...). However, it should be noted that the museum has been the subject of several controversies due to the large number of copies that would be presented there. The integrity of the collections has suffered greatly from successive wars, but also from corruption. Many of the original works have made a tortuous path to the galleries of Tokyo, Hong Kong or Singapore .

For prehistory, human and animal figures discovered in the Dong Noi cave (Lac Thuy district, Hoa Binh province), dated 10,000 years ago and considered to be "the first Vietnamese plastic work". The Dao Tinh bronze jar (Yen Bay Province), dated 2,500 years ago, is a national relic. It reflects the different aspects of the Dông Son civilization (dwellings, funeral rites, spiritual life, etc.), which for Vietnamese historians is at the origin of Vietnamese identity. In the main hall, dated from the 18th century, a superb Goddess of Mercy, a goddess with "a thousand eyes, a thousand arms", a lacquered wooden work that testifies to the skill and technical level of the craftsmen of the time. The room most appreciated by visitors is the one dedicated to the painters of the Indochina School of Fine Arts, which paved the way for a specifically Vietnamese style of modern art, emancipating itself from the influences of Western and Chinese painting. Major works: the lacquers of Nguyen Gia Tri (1908-1993), the oil paintings of To Ngoc Van (1906-1954), the paintings and engravings of the painter Tran Van Can (1910-1994), the works of Bui Xuân Phai (1921-1988), a painter who is to Hanoi what Toulouse-Lautrec was to 19th century Paris. He drew his inspiration from the old streets of Hanoi. In addition to the permanent collections, the museum presents temporary exhibitions.