Silk painting


Silk painting refers to paintings on silk. They are a traditional way of painting in Asia.

National styles

China

One of the earliest surviving Chinese silk paintings is a 2-metre long T-shaped painting, dated from around 165 BCE, from the Mawangdui. However, painting on silk quickly gave way to painting on other supports.
Silk painting employs gutta as a resist, allowing fine patterns to be achieved.

Tibet

The Tibetan Thangka is the best known religious painting.

Vietnam

Ancient period

Silk painting was a traditional artisanry in Vietnam. There have been some old silk paintings, e.g. portraits of Nguyễn Trãi, Phùng Khắc Khoan, Trịnh Đình Kiên, Phan Huy Cẩn, Phan Huy Ích, Phan Huy Thực, and Phan Huy Vịnh dated from Lê and Nguyễn dynasty.

Modern period

Silk paintings of the modern period in Vietnam were taken up by some of the students and French teachers at the EBAI in Hanoi during the 1930s. The earliest representative of the new interest in silk painting at a 1931 Paris exhibition of silk paintings was Nguyễn Phan Chánh, a student of EBAI who had originally trained in calligraphy, and who struggled with French oil techniques, and so whom the school director Victor Tardieu encouraged to use traditional media.