“Nguyen Phan Chanh possessed the essential qualities of the traditional Vietnamese scholar: he learned Chinese, and he studied in Hanoi. Yet, he broke with the past in employing the method of painting he learned from the French. He went to the countryside to sketch [laborers] and relied on his own eye, rather than on convention to create his works. In this way, he represents the first stages in the transformation of Vietnamese painting.”
Nguyen Phan Chanh was an exceptional figure in the history of Vietnamese art. He was considered a Vietnamese scholar, a master of silk painting and his artworks typically portray the daily lives of the Vietnamese community and countryside. Nguyen Phan Chanh was born in 1892 and was educated by his father, a Confucian scholar. He was a student from the first graduating class of the respected Ècole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de L’Indochine in 1930. Unlike some of his younger classmates who moved abroad, such as Le Pho, Mai Trung Thu and Vu Cao Dam, Nguyen lived in Vietnam throughout his life.
Lesson in Chinese calligraphy (Lot 1015) is at once a celebration of a culture that connects Vietnam and China, as well as a nostalgic nod to the artist's personal background and training. Executed in 1932, the work is an excellent example of his early 1930s silk painting which remain exceptionally rare on the market and considered icons of Vietnamese art. Eventually adopting the monogram “Hong Nam”, or South of the mountains of Hong Linh, as his pen name, Nguyen Phan Chanh often followed literati painting traditions. He taught Chinese writing early on in his career and would continue to practice the art throughout his life.
A full and complex composition depicting a teacher instructing his student on calligraphy strokes, the present work is a strikingly academic and intellectual subject, less frequently seen in the artist's oeuvre that was dominated by vignettes of more mundane, rural subjects. Despite the simplicity of forms, Nguyen includes charming details such as the instructor’s spectacles, rolls of scrolls, ink dish and brush in the foreground. The elegant calligraphy inscriptions on the current work, further highlights Nguyen’s classical training which he held onto even as he came under French artistic tutelage.
Inspired by Chinese literati traditions, Nguyen Phan Chanh developed a preference for silk as his supportive medium early in his career. His approach was categorically distinct from that of his contemporaries, who tended to depict Vietnamese elite society in brighter, pastel colors in impressionist styles. In contrast, Nguyen Phan Chanh refused to glamorize his subjects, favoring precision drawing and simple forms. Lesson in Chinese calligraphy displays the artist 's habitual use of a restrained chromatic palette, an amalgamation of somber colors and diluted earth tones that he applied in bold patches. In terms of technique, Nguyen used thin, two dimensional, calligraphic lines to outline his figures but approached the composition from a Western perspective with muted and earthy tones. Another signature characteristic is the still focus we encounter in the contained expression of his figures. Fully engrossed in the lesson at hand, the two figures personify the quiet serenity of Nguyen Phan Chanh's distinct, authentic style.
「阮潘正具備傳統越南學者特質：他學習中文，於河內求學；然而，他打破自己過去的窠臼，學習法國人的西方繪畫方法。他到鄉村用眼睛觀察、描繪勞動者，而不依循慣例。透過這種方式，他代表著越南繪畫第一階段的轉變。」
在越南藝術史上，阮潘正無疑是一個響亮的名字。他被外界視為越南學者，同時也是絹本畫大師，用畫筆記錄越南人民和鄉村地區的日常生活。他生於1892年，自幼師承父親接受儒學洗禮，1930年成為中南半島美術學院的第一屆畢業生。與旅居海外的黎譜、枚中栨（梅忠恕）、武高談等較為年輕的同學不同，阮潘正終其一生都留在越南。
本作《中國書法課》（拍品編號1015）不但展示了聯繫越中兩地的文化紐帶，阮氏藉此亦追憶起自己的成長和求學經歷。這是出自1930年代早期的精緻作品，1932年完成，在市場上難得一見，堪稱越南藝術的代表作。阮潘正年青時曾教授過中國書法，畢生練習不輟，他也會沿襲文人水墨的作風，例如在作品上落款「鴻南」，意為鴻嶺之南。
本作描繪老師給學生上書法課的情景，阮潘正的作品多以鄉村民俗為素材，這種文化氣息濃厚的主題反而比較少見。儘管人物形態簡練，他仍在畫面各處添加了很多令人會心微笑的細節，包括老師的眼鏡，還有畫面前方的卷軸、墨碟和毛筆。兩人身前的書法字帖再次暗示了阮潘正雖然接受過法國美術教育，但中國傳統藝術仍然對他產生了難以磨滅的影響。
阮潘正受中國文人書畫啟發，早年已開始採用絹本作畫。在技法方面，與他同時代的藝術家大多喜歡透過明亮柔和的色彩，以印象派手法刻畫越南菁英階層的生活，阮潘正卻反其道而行之，拒絕為筆下的人物作矯飾，而是偏好精準的線條和簡單的形態。本作反映了畫家克制內斂的用色習慣，他在絹面塗抹大面積的色塊，將沉鬱的顏色和素淡的大地色調融為一體。在勾勒人物方面，畫家主要運用類似書法筆劃的平實細線畫出輪廓。然而在構圖上，他卻以西方的透視法，來配合樸實無華的大地系用色。此外，人物沉靜、專注的神態也是其作品的特徵，師生兩人全神貫注地讀書習字，為阮潘正的獨特風格平添一分安然恬靜。