Ham Nghi emperor’s artworks to be showcased in France
VOV.VN - As many as 150 artworks painted by Vietnamese Emperor Ham Nghi are set to go on display for the first time from March 19 to June 26 at the Museum of Asian Arts in the French city of Nice.
The exhibition, named L'Art en exil, is being organised by Amandine Dabat, a French postgraduate student of Vietnamese art history and Emperor Ham Nghi's fifth-generation descendant. She was also the author of Ham Nghi - Empereur en exil, artiste à Alger, a book that was published in 2019 in France.
Dabat held an exhibition in France in 2016 to showcase Ham Nghi’s oil paintings and statues.
King Ham Nghi, who lived from 1871 to 1944, was the eighth emperor of Vietnam’s last dynasty, the Nguyens.
Following the failure of the Can Vuong (Save the King) movement against French colonial rule, Emperor Ham Nghi was captured and later exiled to Algeria, then a colony of France, on December 12, 1888.
According to historical documents, many of Ham Nghi’s paintings are dated 1889, a year after he was exiled to Algiers.
They were heavily influenced by impressionism and post-impressionism, but mostly featured a darker shade, showing the sadness of a king who had lost his country, Dabat said.
Following 1899 he learned how to produce sculptures from Auguste Rodin, who lived from 1840 to 1917, during his trips to France.
In 1926 in Paris, Ham Nghi introduced his own exhibition to public, showcasing 38 works in oils, 12 in pastels, and eight bronze statues, including the famous painting Déclin du Jour (Decline of the Day).
