18 - Ⓗ VO VAN LANG (also known as JEAN VOLANG, 1921–2005)

Ⓗ VO VAN LANG (also known as JEAN VOLANG, 1921–2005) "The Rice Fields" Oil on canvas Signed lower right 60 x 73 cm VÕ VĂN LĂNG (JEAN VOLANG, 1921–2005) "Những cánh đồng lúa" Oil on canvas Signed lower right 60 x 73 cm Over the past decade, Võ Lăng has established himself as one of the Vietnamese artists whose works regularly appear on the international art auction market. Alongside other Vietnamese artists who have lived and worked abroad, he brings a unique creative voice to the landscape of modern Vietnamese art, helping to raise its profile on the international art scene. Born in 1921 in Huế, Võ Lăng joined the 16th class at the Indochina School of Fine Arts, where he studied from 1942 to 1945. The historic upheavals of the mid-1940s interrupted his studies, as they did for the other students in his class. Around 1945–1946, he left for Hong Kong, before settling in France in 1949, where he lived until his death in 2005. In France, alongside his painting, Võ Lăng worked in film production, art direction for film, animated film, and book illustration. His artistic journey unfolded across different regions, inspired by varied landscapes and human figures. While still living in Vietnam, Võ Lăng painted rice paddies, farmers, rural landscapes, and young women depicted in traditional styles. In Hong Kong, he focused on harbors, sailboats, and coastal bays. In France, European landscapes, scenes of daily life, portraits of women, floral still lifes, horses, and horse races became recurring themes in his work. *Rice Fields* is one of the few works by Võ Lăng known today that depict the landscapes and people of Vietnam. Painted around 1942–1945, it dates from the period when the artist was still studying at the École supérieure des beaux-arts de l’Indochine. Among his published works to date, no other painting dedicated to Vietnam and created after this period has been identified. “Rice Fields” thus not only holds artistic value but also serves as a particularly significant testament to the artist’s attachment to his native country. The painting depicts a rural landscape of the Bắc Bộ, with its plots of freshly transplanted rice, a dirt path, and women wearing traditional nón thúng quai thao hats, carrying goods in their palanches between the rice paddies. In the distance, a row of trees, an ancient architectural gate, and rooftops emerge discreetly, evoking the atmosphere of a village market. Given the landscape’s characteristics and geographical clues, it is highly likely that the scene depicts the rice paddies of the village of Mông Phụ in Đường Lâm, a location associated with field trips taken by teachers and students from the Indochina School of Fine Arts. Rather than depicting an exceptional event or figure, Võ Lăng chooses simple scenes from village life. Yet he transforms them into a pictorial space rich in color, light, and rhythm. The composition is organized primarily along horizontal planes, which lend it a sense of stability and openness. On the dirt path, the women’s stride, the bright yellow of their hats, and the loads they carry create a succession of light, flowing rhythms. The landscape is peaceful without being static: people and nature together breathe vitality into the painting. The uniqueness of *Rice Fields* lies above all in the way Võ Lăng employs a pictorial language with Post-Impressionist characteristics to express the landscape and spirit of Vietnam. He does not seek to faithfully reproduce every form, the natural colors of the elements, or the details of the landscape. The rice paddies are rendered in a variety of greens, blues, yellows, purples, and pinks. The dark green masses of trees contrast with the sky’s orange and pink hues, while the dirt path becomes a warm, luminous strip amid the verdant expanses. The colors intertwine and interact; the brushstrokes—sometimes short, sometimes long—remain almost intact, lending the light and atmosphere a palpable vibrancy on the surface of the canvas. The women, too, are rendered through flat areas of color and supple brushstrokes. Without meticulously detailing the faces, the