To Ngoc Van
To Ngoc Van
Born 1906; died 1954. Vietnamese painter and graphic artist.
To Ngoc Van graduated from the Indochina Advanced School of Fine Arts in Hanoi in 1930. In 1950 he became director of an art school temporarily based in the jungle as a result of the French intervention. He was killed during a French bombing raid. To Ngoc Van worked predominantly in oils and water-colors. His paintings are known for their subtle lyricism and soft color schemes, for example, By the Lilies (oil, 1943). Many of his works depict socialist transformation in the lives of the Vietnamese people, for example, At Evening School (watercolor, 1954).