Description
Hàm Nghi (1871-1944) Evening light Oil on canvas dated lower left in ideograms and numbers ?? (June) 1905. Numbered 48 on the lower right. Size : 30 x 46 cm Provenance : Private collection Heroic figure of the Vietnamese national resistance against French colonization, the Emperor of Annam Hàm Nghi (1871-1944) was the eighth emperor of the Nguyen dynasty (1884-1885). Born Nguyen Phúc Ung Lich, Emperor Hàm Nghi acceded to the throne in August 1884 until July 1885, when the French invaded Tonkin and put the whole of Annam under their protectorate. When the French troops seized Hue, the young emperor fled to lead an insurrection against the occupier. Captured at the end of October 1888, Hàm Nghi was exiled on December 13 of the same year. He was then eighteen years old and was henceforth called "Prince of Annam". The deposed sovereign spent the rest of his life in exile in Algiers. From the beginning of his exile, in January 1889, he became passionate about painting, and then sculpture. By devoting his life to Fine Arts, he became the first modern Vietnamese artist. When he painted this picture, in June 1905, Hàm Nghi was a young married man (on November 4, 1904 he had married a French woman, Marcelle Laloë) and soon a young father (his eldest daughter was born two months later). That summer, Hàm Nghi did not travel to France, as was his custom. He painted this canvas on the spot, in the countryside surrounding his villa in El Biar, on the heights of Algiers. This period marks a turning point in his work. Like the impressionists from whom he drew inspiration, Hàm Nghi explored the play of light, the chiaroscuro, to express his love for the beauty of nature, his favorite subject. This period can be interpreted as an expression of the artist's happiness at having founded a family. As a political prisoner, he was under surveillance all his life, but art was his space of freedom. The canvas bears the number "48" in the lower right corner. Hàm Nghi numbered some of his works which were part of a series of paintings, as Amandine Dabat explains in the thesis she devoted to her ancestor. We thank Mrs. Amandine Dabat for the authentication of the painting.
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Hàm Nghi (1871-1944) Evening light Oil on canvas dated lower left in ideograms and numbers ?? (June) 1905. Numbered 48 on the lower right. Size : 30 x 46 cm Provenance : Private collection Heroic figure of the Vietnamese national resistance against French colonization, the Emperor of Annam Hàm Nghi (1871-1944) was the eighth emperor of the Nguyen dynasty (1884-1885). Born Nguyen Phúc Ung Lich, Emperor Hàm Nghi acceded to the throne in August 1884 until July 1885, when the French invaded Tonkin and put the whole of Annam under their protectorate. When the French troops seized Hue, the young emperor fled to lead an insurrection against the occupier. Captured at the end of October 1888, Hàm Nghi was exiled on December 13 of the same year. He was then eighteen years old and was henceforth called "Prince of Annam". The deposed sovereign spent the rest of his life in exile in Algiers. From the beginning of his exile, in January 1889, he became passionate about painting, and then sculpture. By devoting his life to Fine Arts, he became the first modern Vietnamese artist. When he painted this picture, in June 1905, Hàm Nghi was a young married man (on November 4, 1904 he had married a French woman, Marcelle Laloë) and soon a young father (his eldest daughter was born two months later). That summer, Hàm Nghi did not travel to France, as was his custom. He painted this canvas on the spot, in the countryside surrounding his villa in El Biar, on the heights of Algiers. This period marks a turning point in his work. Like the impressionists from whom he drew inspiration, Hàm Nghi explored the play of light, the chiaroscuro, to express his love for the beauty of nature, his favorite subject. This period can be interpreted as an expression of the artist's happiness at having founded a family. As a political prisoner, he was under surveillance all his life, but art was his space of freedom. The canvas bears the number "48" in the lower right corner. Hàm Nghi numbered some of his works which were part of a series of paintings, as Amandine Dabat explains in the thesis she devoted to her ancestor. We thank Mrs. Amandine Dabat for the authentication of the painting.
