Đông Hồ painting

Đông Hồ painting is considered a fine reflection of traditional aesthetic value, social philosophies, and humanitarian desires.

The traditional themes of Đông Hồ painting are good luck signs, historical figures, folk allegories, popular stories, and social commentaries.

[1][2] Following is a table of main themes in Đông Hồ paintings and exemplary pictures of each theme:[3] Because Đông Hồ paintings are mainly bought and displayed on the occasion of Tết Nguyên Đán (Vietnamese New Year), contents are often humorous and optimistic with bright and powerful colours such as red, yellow, and white.

Sometimes, Đông Hồ paintings are shown in couplet or quartet to fully express the signification of the set, for example, the Vinh Hoa (eminence) and the Phú quý (prosperity and honour) should be taken in a couple.

For example, before World War I, Đông Hồ villagers produced a set of four prints entitled Văn Minh tiến bộ (The Progress of Civilization) in which the Westernization of the Vietnamese society was delicately criticized through the satirical portrayal of contemporary Vietnamese people dressing and behaving like French people.

[6] Due to the elements of seashell and glutinous rice, điệp paper possesses an exotic sparkling hard background and is able to conserve the durability of colours.

[2] The finished picture is covered with a layer of rice paste (hồ nếp) to strengthen the durability of its illustration and colours and afterwards dried under the sun.

[9] Originally, Đông Hồ paintings were made only with black-and-white prints of woodcuts, but from the 15th century, different colours were introduced by craftsmen in the village.

[10] However, the tradition faded rapidly under the dominance of modern life in Vietnam, and Đông Hồ pictures gradually disappeared in Vietnamese families during the Tết holiday.