Victor Tardieu (1870-1937)
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Painter, muralist and founding director of the famed École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts d’Indochine, Victor Tardieu was born in Lyons, France on April 30th 1870 to a family of silk traders. Tardieu first studied art at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon--where his classmates included Henri Matisse and Georges Roualt— before moving to Paris in 1889. In October of 1890 he enrolled at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, where he studied with Léon Bonnat and Albert Maignan. After his painting “Travail” was awarded a national prize in 1902, Tardieu used his award money to travel and paint in European port cities including London, Liverpool and Genoa.
From 1909 to 1913 Tardieu created decorative murals for banquet halls of Lilas and Mountrouge. He then enlisted for three years of military duty, serving as a camouflage expert. After the war, Tardieu won the 1921 Prix de l’Indochine which came with a one year travel grant, a first class cabin to Paris and free transportation while in Indochina (Vietnam).
While in Hanoi, he was commissioned to paint two large murals in his classical style, one for the main auditorium of the Indochina University and the other for the reading room of the Central Library. One of the murals—which featured a central allegorical figure—was a didactic composition portraying the benevolence of the French in Indochina. As he became increasingly enchanted with Indochina after visiting villages and admiring the work of native artisans, he decided to remain there.
Tardieu soon met Nam Son (Nguyễn Văn Thời), an accomplished ink painter. Tardieu encouraged Nam Son to study art at the “l’Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris” from 1924 to 1925, where he was exposed to works by Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and others. Nam Son then returned to Vietnam, where he convinced General Governor Merlin to establish the “L’Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine” or FACI in 1925. The school was to be located on the Rue Bovet, across the street from the Musée Maurice Long, which held ethnographic items.
A strict but fatherly man who was called “Master” by his students, Tardieu was later remembered as being sincerely interest in the development of Vietnamese culture. The classes were small—only 10 to 15 students were enrolled in each class of the school’s first decade—and the followed a model very similar to that of French art schools. Drawing classes worked from plaster models and oil painting was taught. The initial three-year program was soon extended to five years and a library and art museum were soon established. In the twenty years of operation the school graduated 128 artists including many who would become famous both in Asia and in Europe. These artists, who now understood that there were not simply “artisans” but fine artists, began to follow the European practice of signing their paintings.
In 1931, Tardieu served as art director of the Angkor Pavilion of the Paris Colonial Exposition, commissioning his student Lê Phổ to supervise decoration of the lacquer salon. When Victor Tardieu died in 1937 his casket was accompanied through the streets on Hanoi by a long line of mourners dressed in white. To his students he was a hero who respected their national traditions while offering them exposure to Western methods and ideas, forever changing Vietnamese art.
In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Hanoi National University, the painter Nguyễn Hoàng Hùng created a reproduction of Tardieu’s original mural, which had been destroyed in 1956 because of its association with colonialism.
From 1909 to 1913 Tardieu created decorative murals for banquet halls of Lilas and Mountrouge. He then enlisted for three years of military duty, serving as a camouflage expert. After the war, Tardieu won the 1921 Prix de l’Indochine which came with a one year travel grant, a first class cabin to Paris and free transportation while in Indochina (Vietnam).
While in Hanoi, he was commissioned to paint two large murals in his classical style, one for the main auditorium of the Indochina University and the other for the reading room of the Central Library. One of the murals—which featured a central allegorical figure—was a didactic composition portraying the benevolence of the French in Indochina. As he became increasingly enchanted with Indochina after visiting villages and admiring the work of native artisans, he decided to remain there.
Tardieu soon met Nam Son (Nguyễn Văn Thời), an accomplished ink painter. Tardieu encouraged Nam Son to study art at the “l’Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris” from 1924 to 1925, where he was exposed to works by Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and others. Nam Son then returned to Vietnam, where he convinced General Governor Merlin to establish the “L’Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine” or FACI in 1925. The school was to be located on the Rue Bovet, across the street from the Musée Maurice Long, which held ethnographic items.
A strict but fatherly man who was called “Master” by his students, Tardieu was later remembered as being sincerely interest in the development of Vietnamese culture. The classes were small—only 10 to 15 students were enrolled in each class of the school’s first decade—and the followed a model very similar to that of French art schools. Drawing classes worked from plaster models and oil painting was taught. The initial three-year program was soon extended to five years and a library and art museum were soon established. In the twenty years of operation the school graduated 128 artists including many who would become famous both in Asia and in Europe. These artists, who now understood that there were not simply “artisans” but fine artists, began to follow the European practice of signing their paintings.
In 1931, Tardieu served as art director of the Angkor Pavilion of the Paris Colonial Exposition, commissioning his student Lê Phổ to supervise decoration of the lacquer salon. When Victor Tardieu died in 1937 his casket was accompanied through the streets on Hanoi by a long line of mourners dressed in white. To his students he was a hero who respected their national traditions while offering them exposure to Western methods and ideas, forever changing Vietnamese art.
In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Hanoi National University, the painter Nguyễn Hoàng Hùng created a reproduction of Tardieu’s original mural, which had been destroyed in 1956 because of its association with colonialism.