A young woman is shown in crisp profile facing left, her gaze directed into open space as if caught mid-thought. Her skin is rendered with soft, powdery shading rather than sharp contour, giving her face a calm, porcelain-like stillness. Long, straight black hair falls in a continuous curtain down her back, held near the nape by a small, bright white comb. One hand is lifted, fingers gently curved under the chin, while the other arm folds across the body, creating a quiet, self-contained pose. She wears a deep red outer garment over a pale inner layer;l while a narrow band of yellow peeks at the seam, adding a warm note against the cool, muted ground. Behind her, the background dissolves into mossy greens and blurred shrub forms, with the silk’s fine texture subtly catching the pigments and softening edges into haze. Painting on silk was an important medium in Vietnamese artist Lê Phổ’s practice. This work balances delicacy with structure for a silhouette that is clean and graphic, yet an atmosphere stays velvety and intimate. The sitter is not identified, and the portrait’s power comes from that restraint: rather than telling us who she is, it dwells on how she feels—composed, private, and fully present in her own interior world. The white comb is both an everyday object and an emblem . It’s a small tool of care that becomes a luminous anchor for memory, ritual, and self-fashioning. Lê Phổ’s life bridged Hanoi and Paris, and after formative study at the École des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine and later time in France, he developed a signature style that fused Vietnamese materials with European pictorial traditions. In that hybrid space, this profile becomes more than a likeness. It is a meditation on quiet dignity and how a simple gesture, a comb, and a wash of color can hold an entire mood.

“Le peigne blanc (The White Comb)” by Lê Phổ (Le Pho) (Vietnamese) - Ink and color on silk / c. early 1940s - National Gallery Singapore #WomenInArt #LePho #LêPhổ #Pho #NationalGallerySingapore #arte #VietnameseArt #AsianArt #art #artText #BlueskyArt #VietnameseArtist #AsianArtist #PortraitofaWoman

The title “Sơn nữ (Mountain Girl)” frames this portrait as both individual and emblem as a tribute to rural life and the feminine presence within Vietnam’s landscapes. Working in silk, a medium that rewards restraint, artist Lê Thị Lựu builds emotion through gentle lines and layered, luminous colors, letting the background glow through each area. The softened contours are less like documentary description than remembered light that’s tender, protective, and intentionally quiet. The young Vietnamese woman is shown from the waist up with her gaze lowered carrying a calm, inward happiness. Her skin is light-to-medium in the warm wash of the silk, and her cheeks are softly flushed. Straight black hair frames her face in short bangs with two braids falling toward her shoulders beneath a pale headscarf. Her features are modeled with delicate transitions without hard outlines so light seems to rise from within the fabric. She wears a white sleeveless vest over a blue blouse, with a darker collar at the neckline. At her chest and lap, she gathers a loose bouquet of cream and blush pink blossoms intermixed with leaves and shadowy stems, painted in watery touches that feather along the weave. Some petals dissolve into soft stains while others are come from few quick marks, creating texture without literal detail. Lựu lets areas of the silk remain luminous, so the young lady appears to float forward from the backdrop rather than sit heavily on it. Behind her, branches sweep diagonally, and the landscape breaks into luminous yellows and cool blues, like sunlight in a flowering thicket. Small accents of coral and deep teal flicker near the lower edge, echoing the bouquet’s colors and drawing our eyes back to her hands. Painted in 1980, late in Lựu’s life, this artwork values interiority over display. Even if the sitter’s name is unknown, she is rendered as someone with an inner world that is present, centered, and unhurried focused on blossoms that feel like place and mood.

“Sơn nữ” (The Mountain Girl) by Lê Thị Lựu (Vietnamese) - Silk painting / 1980 - Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts (Vietnam) #WomenInArt #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #LeThiLuu #LêThịLựu #Luu #HoChiMinhCityMuseumofFineArts #VietnameseArt #SilkPainting #VietnameseArtist #WomenPaintingWomen

A young Vietnamese woman with warm light-beige skin sits cross-legged, her long dark hair swept into a loose bun that crowns her head. She wears a flowing, pale blue-white áo dài whose wide sleeves open like wings. The silk-like garment is rendered in layered, textured strokes that catch light. Her oval face is calm, eyes softly downcast, lips a muted rose. Centered at her chest bloom strokes of coral-red and orange suggest clustered blossoms cradled by her hands while the surrounding field dissolves into deep and misty blues. Plant silhouettes and petal-like marks drift across the surface while lighter flecks resemble reflections on water. The paint is visibly scumbled, incised, and mottled so the woman seems to emerge from a lotus pond, held in a hush between breath and thought. Created during the artist’s mature oil-painting years in southern France, “Méditation” belongs to a group of contemplative female figures that merge Vietnamese spirituality with European modernist color and texture. Vũ Cao Đàm trained at the École des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine and later settled near Vence, where a brighter, dream-like palette and dissolving backdrops entered his work. The blue, aqueous background and bouquet-like reds echo the serenity and life-force of the lotus (Buddhist shorthand for awakening) while the sitter’s cupped, aligned hands recall mudrā-like gestures of inward focus. The sculptor’s touch remains: palette-knife striations and incisions model the face and robe with tender restraint, a hallmark that links his early training to his later canvases. The hovering blossoms place “mind” at the heart, turning the body into a shrine of quiet illumination. Shown in the French retrospective dedicated to Lê Phô, Mai-Thu, and Vũ Cao Đàm, the painting embodies his lifelong synthesis of modern color harmonies and atmospheric backgrounds carrying Vietnamese values of contemplation, grace, and the endurance of cultural memory into a timeless present.

“Méditation (Meditation)” by Vũ Cao Đàm (Vietnamese-French) – Oil on canvas / c. 1960s–1970s – Musée Cernuschi (Paris, France) #WomenInArt #symbolism #art #artText #artwork #VũCaoĐàm #VuCaoDam #VietnameseArt #VietnameseArtist #BlueskyArt #arte #peinture #meditation #MuséeCernuschi #Modernism

Painted in 1934, Thiếu nữ Huế (Hue Girl) — sometimes titled Lady — embodies Vietnamese artist Mai Trung Thứ’s refined synthesis of French academic training and Vietnamese poetics. A graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine in Hanoi, Thứ moved to France, joining a generation of artists who navigated identity amid colonial modernity. His women, clothed in flowing áo dài and framed in muted tones, became emblems of cultural continuity in a rapidly changing world. Seated on a low reddish wooden bench, a young Vietnamese woman wears a high-collared, long-sleeved áo dài in pale grey. Her head tilts slightly to our left, eyes turned softly to the same side rather than toward us. Her warm light-brown skin is modeled gently; dark hair is swept up in a neat chignon (not loose on the shoulders). Her right hand rests across her lap as the left arm extends back with the hand relaxed over the bench edge, fingers loose. Her long tunic drapes over a layered skirt, its hem pooling at the seat. Behind her is a flat, textured ochre field with no drapery or furniture other than the bench. The mood is quiet and inward for a poised, thoughtful, and reserved portrait. The flattened ochre ground and restrained palette frame the unidentified sitter as a self-contained presence, while the delicate modeling and dignified pose express a tenderness central to his portraits. Through subtle elegance rather than overt resistance, Thứ bridged East and West, giving modern Vietnamese painting its lyrical voice. As art historian T.K. Sabapathy observed, Thứ’s portraits are “poised between nostalgia and renewal.” In “Hue Girl,” that balance endures like a serene vision of womanhood and homeland, distilled into light, fabric, and memory.

“Thiếu nữ Huế (Hue Girl)” aka “Lady” by Mai Trung Thứ (Mai Trung Thu) (Vietnamese) – Oil on canvas / 1934 – Singapore Art Museum #WomenInArt #art #artText #artwork #PortraitofaLady #MaiTrungThứ #MaiTrungThu #BlueskyArt #SingaporeArtMuseum #VietnameseArtist #VietnameseArt #1930s #PortraitofaWoman

This 3/4-length portrait of a young unidentified nurse in a traditional white cap and gown is by Vietnamese artist Dương Bích Liên. She holds a dark old-school lantern by its metal handle at chest height, her bent forearm emerging from the sleeve. Soft shoulder-length black hair frames her oval face; dark eyes look off to the left with a calm, alert expression and a small closed smile. The background is a mist of gray, mauve, and taupe washes, with loose, sketchy outlines defining the figure. The palette is restrained, the light subdued, conveying quiet vigilance. Rendered in strokes, paint pools, and gentle fades at edges. Liên was born in 1924 in Hanoi, into a family steeped in scholarly tradition and traditional medicine. He trained at the École des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine, in its final cohort (1944-45), stepping into adulthood as Vietnam was in upheaval under colonial rule, then war, then division. Yet despite the turbulence of public life around him, Liên remained a contemplative, almost solitary painter; his works are not loud declarations, but intimate diaries in gouache or oil, portraits of women and small city scenes, reflections of both memory and quiet moments. “The Nurse (Nữ y tá )” was made between 1968-1972. This period was one of intense conflict in Vietnam as war was at its height, especially in the South, but in the North and Hanoi life carried on, constrained yet continuing, everyday human stories threaded through the larger tragedy. For Liên, those years seem to have been ones of inward reflection: to capture, with immediacy and sensitivity, the human cost, the quiet dignity, the unseen caretakers in war and illness. Liên often painted women he encountered, not as abstractions or symbols, but as persons in the life around him. “The Nurse” stands as a testament to Liên’s artistry blending humanism, gentle melancholy, and the abiding belief that even in war, the simplest gestures of care are worthy of remembrance.

Nữ y tá (The Nurse) by Dương Bích Liên (Vietnamese) - Gouache on paper / 1968-1972 - Quang San Art Museum (Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam) #WomenInArt #gouache #art #artText #artwork #nurse #PortraitofaWoman #GouacheArt #BlueskyArt #VietnameseArt #VietnameseArtist #DươngBíchLiên #bskyart #QuangSanArtMuseum

Porträt einer Frau von Tran Van Can (Vietnamesisch) – Tinte und Gouache auf Seide / 1941 – Quang San Art Museum (Ho-Chi-Minh-Stadt, Vietnam) #WomenInArt #art #PortraitofaWoman #VietnameseArt #QSAM #artText #TranVanCan #TranVanCan #VietnameseArtist #artwork #BlueskyArt #QuangSanArtMuseum

This portrait by Vietnamese artist Trần Văn Cẩn (aka Tran Van Can) depicts a young Asian woman with dark black hair pulled back from her face, sitting in a wooden chair. She is wearing a pale pink, long-sleeved áo dài, a traditional Vietnamese tunic dress, over white pants. Her posture is slumped, with her head resting on her arm, which is draped across the back of the chair. Her expression is one of quiet sadness, introspection, or possibly boredom with her eyes downcast, and her mouth slightly downturned. The chair is a simple wooden one with a rounded back, and it's painted in muted browns and dark reds. Behind her, a table is partially visible; on it sits a pale teal bowl and a terracotta-colored vase holding a stylized arrangement of flowers. The background is muted grayish tones with hints of pale color of a nondescript room. The colors throughout the painting are muted and harmonious, emphasizing the contemplative mood. From lacquer to oil painting, Trần Văn Cẩn left his mark on many mediums with masterful artistic skills. As a member of the quartet “Tri, Lan, Van, Can", he is remembered not only for his outstanding talent across mediums, but also for his central role in paving the way for painting in Vietnam during tumultuous historical eras. During the anti-French resistance, he taught at the Viet Bac Fine Arts School. After To Ngoc Van’s passing in 1954, Trần Văn Cẩn succeeded him as the head of the Vietnam University of Fine Arts, holding this position until 1969. He also served as the General Secretary of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association (1958–1983) and as an art advisor for several major cultural projects. As an artist and educator, Trần Văn Cẩn profoundly impacted many generations of artists. In 1996, he was posthumously awarded the prestigious “Ho Chi Minh Prize for Literature and the Arts” in recognition of his lifelong contributions. He passed away in 1994 in Hanoi, leaving behind a profound artistic legacy both in quantity and quality.

Chân dung thiếu nữ (Portrait of a Woman) by Trần Văn Cẩn (Vietnamese) - Ink & gouache on silk / 1941 - Quang San Art Museum (Hồ Chí Minh City, Vietnam) #WomenInArt #art #PortraitofaWoman #VietnameseArt #QSAM #artText #TrầnVănCẩn #TranVanCan #VietnameseArtist #artwork #BlueskyArt #QuangSanArtMuseum

Jeune fille en blanc (Young Girl in White) is a rare and important example from Vietnamese-French artist Lê Phổ’s early artistic period, and marks an important juncture in the artist’s career, during his first trip to Paris, France between 1930-1932. The painting’s colophon is extracted from an 18th Century poem written from the perspective of a soldier’s wife lamenting the suffering of war. The young Vietnamese woman with her long black hair in a bun and dressed in an austere white áo dài quietly gazes introspectively at a white pot of delicate white and dark flowers that have been cultivated with care. The blooming flowers are in direct contrast to the sparse interior and bleak outdoors that is her backdrop, and Lê Phổ presents us with an allegory of longing, loyalty, duty, and perseverance. Lê Phổ is regarded as a key figure within the discussion of modern art in Vietnam. Alongside contemporaries Mai Trung Thứ and Vũ Cao Đàm, Lê Phổ is representative of the generation of artists trained within the French academic style at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Hanoi, who then traveled to France to further their careers. Lê Phổ arrived in Paris in 1930, and enrolled at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts. During this time, he also participated in the Prima Mostra Internazionale d’arte Coloniale in Rome, Italy, 1931, where “Jeune fille en blanc,” was likely to have been first exhibited. “Jeune fille en blanc” presents a study of a particular individual: the background plain, her body composed of nothing but the white fabric of her traditional Vietnamese dress, her hair tied back demurely, leaving all our attention on the particularities of her face. While works of this type were frequently sold to French collectors or exhibited in colonial exhibitions, this painting is not defined by the colonial gaze. She remains a subject with a sense of self-definition rather than a colonial object.

Jeune fille en blanc (Young Girl in White) by Lê Phổ (Vietnamese) - Oil on canvas / 1931 - National Gallery Singapore #WomenInArt #ArtText #art #oilpainting #NationalGallerySingapore #VietnameseArtist #LêPhổ #LePho #VietnameseArt #womensart #poetry #artwork #portraitofagirl #áodài #aodai #bskyart

Cheap marker + Pilot Pen M nib + Digital Coloring using @affinity @xppen

#illustration #artofillustration #posterart #illustrationartists #vietnameseartist #coverart

Zakkyo Building #vietnameseartist #japan #tokyo #citylandscape #posterart #artofillustration

Dip Pen & Digital coloring

#dippen #dippenart #inkartwork #inking #illustration #artofinstagram #artofillustration #vietnameseartist #lips #posterart #posterartist #artofvisual #mixedmedia

Joined the #starterpacknoai trend with my own twist ft. My mascot Haru in a figure box packed w/ my daily essentials :3

#digitalartlove #chibiartstyle #comiccreators #2025artvibes #vietnameseartist #cutecoreaesthetic #starterpackchallenge #artistsoninstagram

In The Making
#vietnameseartist #illustration #illustrator #posterart

Some fresh giclee prints for the pop up tonight @berlinpartytokyo @the_den_koenji
#giclée #fineartprintsforsale #vietnameseartist #illustration #posterart #illustrator #illustrationartists #artofillustration #vietnameseillustrator #gilceeprint #gicleeprint

Luong Xuan Nhi (Lương Xuân Nhị) was an artist known as 'the master of the color green.' Being singled out as such meant that his sense of color must have been highly regarded because Vietnam was a country where pastoral landscapes were popular and green was, understandably, the major color of numerous paintings. The color green, used abundantly in this painting of an unidentified Vietnamese woman in a white dress sitting on a couch and reading a book, varies in subtle gradations, reflecting the shadow and the light emanating from outside; while the elegant white ao dai (áo dài) dress was chosen to create a fresh picturesque effect. The artist seemed to be interested in using color variations and soft brushwork to depict subjects in a realistic, and yet, romantic way. The image of graceful young women in a traditional Vietnamese gown (áo dài) as the "symbol of Vietnam" was a popular theme among the artists of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de l'Indocine, the alma mater of Luong Xuan Nhi. The school later became the Vietnam Secondary Art School where the artist, a greatly respected educator, taught from 1955 to 1981.

A Reading Girl by Lương Xuân Nhị (Vietnamese) - Oil on canvas / 1940 - Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (Japan) #womeninart #oilpainting #art #Vietnameseartist #reading #LuongXuanNhi #LươngXuânNhị #artwork #VietnameseArt #FukuokaAsianArtMuseum #福岡アジア美術館 #beauty #fineart #womensart #AsianArt #AsianArtist

some bts linework #linework #artofillustration #illustrator #hireme #vietnameseartist #illustration #posterart #coverart #crane #illustrator #drawing

My calling was heard, thank you for like&share. I hope my works will reach to more and more art lovers, art directors, publishers out there. Please hire me if you have a project that you think I am a good match for it, portfolio link in bio, #hireme #illustrator #vietnameseartist #ineedjob

Practicing anatomy with ballerina poses. Im sure ballerina dancers knowing how to express through body/poses

#ballerinas #illustration #vietnameseartist #illustrator #anatomypracticing

Mai Thứ captures the concept of femininity from various perspectives throughout his work to celebrate Vietnamese traditions and folk culture through depictions of women. He favored painting in gouache and ink on silk to delineate women in various states such as Mélancolie, which through a fine treatment of details, depicts the beauty and tenderness of a young Vietnamese woman sitting on a wooden stool holding an open hand fan. Her restrained emotions, with their lustrous straight long dark hair complemented with soft-hued light green top and darker green pants—all come together as manifestations of beauty in accordance to traditional Vietnamese aesthetics. With an empty red sandal on the floor, she has raised her bare foot onto the stool to put her right elbow on her knee and rest her head in her right hand that completely conveys the sense of a melancholic moment in her life. The artist is one of the pioneers of modern Vietnamese painting. Born in Indochina during the French Colonization, Mai Thứ studied at the Fine Arts College of Indochina in Hanoi, graduating in its first class in 1930. In addition to mastering classical Western techniques of drawing and oil painting, he was skilled in figurative painting on silk and in various styles of Chinese painting. Seeking a new artistic expression that would be specifically Vietnamese, he gradually perfected a visual language after permanently settling in France in 1937. Through encounters with master painters of the European tradition, particularly Renaissance painters, Mai Thứ performed a subtle synthesis between Western and Vietnamese motifs. His pared-down images respond to a stylized ideal of gentleness and balance that led him to be considered among the most traditional of Vietnamese artists; however, in actuality, this universe, constructed from various references, is unique to Mai Thứ.

Mélancolie (Melancholy) by Mai Trung Thứ (Vietnamese) - Ink and gouache on silk / 1970 - Almine Rech Gallery (Paris, France) #womeninart #art #portrait #MaiThu #VietnameseArt #InkArt #SilkArt #portraitofawoman #womensart #MaiThứ #melancholy #artwork #AlmineRechGallery #VietnameseArtist #mélancolie

Year of the Snake
#illustration #yearofthesnake #artofillustration #vietnameseartist

Lê Phô was one of the first Vietnamese artists to graduate from the École des Beaux Arts de l’Indochine (Indochina School of Fine Arts) in Hanoi, and his work represents the ambitious artistic experiments of his generation. In Jeune fille à la rose (1942), Phô depicts a young woman with a serene expression, dressed in traditional attire, set against a backdrop of a stylized garden and buildings. It is a moody painting utilizing a muted color palette of grays, beiges, and greens. The brushstrokes are visible, giving the painting a textured quality that is soft and evocative. The Vietnamese woman is presented with soft and rounded features with her eyes almost closed looking down with a calm and peaceful expression. Her red lips stand out from the light beige-gray, loose-fitting traditional clothing that harmonizes well with the background subtly rendered, suggesting a courtyard, with light and shadow plus buildings at a distance used to create depth and a sense of space. The soft colors and brushstrokes create a sense of tranquility. Her pose is slightly turned towards her right, and her gaze is directed downward, creating a sense of introspection although she seems quite relaxed.

Jeune fille à la rose (Young girl with a rose) by Lê Phô (Vietnamese) - Pigment and Ink on silk / 1942 - Musée Cernuschi (Paris, France) #womeninart #art #lepho #artwork #vietnameseart #silkart #painting #womensart #MuséeCernuschi #LêPhô #vietnameseartist #fineart #paintingofawoman #vietnamese #rose

Chúc mừng năm mới! 2025 is the year of the Wood Snake so here's a snake wrapped around some wood. Wishing you all a happy Lunar New Year!

#vietnameseart #vietnameseartist #yearofthesnake #lunarnewyear2025 #lunarnewyear #tet #tết #chucmungnammoi #chúcmừngnămmới #snakeart

🗡️ 👠 👯‍♀️

#illustration #illustrator #illustrationartists #illustration_daily #artofillustration #artofvisuals #visualart #fashion #fencing #blackdress #scenery #slayqueen #color #love #hate #vietnameseartist

The 3 color ways I did for Harper Collins & Fairy Loot. Please treat me well 2025, last year was a roller coaster I hope to do more book related projects this year.

#bookcover #bookcoverartist #illustration #illustrationartists #worldofillustration #artofillustration #vietnameseartist #illustrator

Happy New Year Everyone. Please connect me to the art community. Please be good 2025 #vietnameseartist #illustration #artofillustration #illustrator #bookcoverartist #posterart #posterartist #bookcoverart #asianartist #visualart #illustrationart #illustrationartist #bookcover #lineart #artonbluesky

Happy New Year Everyone. Please connect me to the art community, have more book cover projects (my favorite thing to draw) expanding into music, editorials...maybe and hopefully a picture book. Please be good 2025 #vietnameseartist #illustration #artofillustration #illustrator #bookcoverartist

A woman sits cross-legged playing a đàn nguyệt (moon-shaped lute) with a large round body and long thin neck. She wears an ao dai light green silk tunic with dark green pants plus an orange headband. The bemused look on her face conveys attentive skill and joy together.

Musicienne à la guitare by Mai Trung Thu (Vietnamese) - Ink and colors on silk / 1972 - Almine Rech (Matignon, Paris) #womeninart #art #vietnameseartist #artwork #painting #silkart #bsky.art #artoftheday #bskyart #vietnamese #vietnameseart #artbsky #maitrungthu #maithu

Another color way for @fairyloot

#bookcover #bookcoverdesign #bookcoverart #bookcoverartist #bookcoverartwork #illustration #illustrationartists #vietnameseartist #indianmythology #india #celestialdance #romancebooks #artofillustration #artofbookcovers #coverartwork #coverart #coverartdesign

Inspiration from my trip to Ladakh, India. Visited many Tibetan monasteries in this area with beautiful ancient artworks on the walls. Please feel free to shoot me a message , Im open for commissions #illustration #artofillustration #illustrator #artwork #vietnameseartist

From 1 brush stroke of Chinese ink on paper in the shape of a snake 🐍

#aodaivietnam #chineseink #illustration #posterart #coverartwork #illustrationartists #vietnameseartist #artofillustration #procreate #weareillustration #illustrationx #mixmedia #mixmediaart #inktober #inktober2024