Trần Quang Trân

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Trần Quang Trân (1900–1969) was a Vietnamese lacquer artist and painter. He was among the first graduates of the Indochina College of Fine Arts (third promotion, 1932), now the Vietnam University of Fine Arts, and helped shape Vietnamese art. He is considered one of the first artists to focus on lacquer painting and was influenced by the painter Joseph Inguimberty. He produced relatively few works, and many are now rare or lost. Most surviving pieces are oil paintings, watercolors, wash drawings, and charcoal drawings; none of his lacquer works from that early period survive. His painting The sparkling water pond is said to be the first lacquer painting done in Indochina and is linked to the college’s collection; it was likely destroyed or stolen at the start of the Indochina War.

Born in the Hanoi region, Trần Quang Trân initially studied trading and worked in Haiphong for an oil company and in a lamp factory in Dap Cau. From 1927 to 1932 he studied at the Fine Arts Academy, standing out for his refined drawings under Dinh Van Thanh. He is credited with inventing a technique that adds gold powder between lacquer layers to create light and shadow, a method later used by artists such as Pham Hau, Tran Van Can, Nguyen Khang, and Nguyen Gia Tri. He may have visited Japan around 1930 to improve his technique. After graduating in 1932, he opened a workshop at 87 Charron Street in Hanoi. In the 1930s he painted lacquer panels and boxes and many portraits of famous Vietnamese figures. He changed his artist name and signature in the mid-1930s, sometimes signing as Ngym or Nghi Am. His work often depicts tranquil scenes of deserts, temples, old buildings, and lakes, blending Eastern and Western traditions.

In the early 1940s he began teaching in private schools (Thang Long, Gia Long) and, from 1949, at the Vietnam University of Fine Arts. During the war he lived in northern Vietnam and, from 1958 to 1962, worked for the Vietnam Film Studio (an animation studio) and gave many lectures at a Vietnamese film school. He continued painting until late in life and died in 1969.