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Dong Ho Traditional Woodblock Paintings

Musicalcroc by Musicalcroc

Art from Life

The paintings featured in this lens are works of artisans from Dong Ho Village, Bac Ninh Province (Vietnam) from time innumerable. The technique and the artistic style have been passed down from father to son exclusively in the area, forming a line of traditional art that is named after the village, Dong Ho. No one knows who came up with the technique as well as the pictures. They have simply been around for a long while. In Vietnam there are other lines of traditional art, but Dong Ho is the most well known and prolific.

Traditionally, the Dong Ho artisans are not "professional" artists in the sense that they do not make their livings exclusively from art. They are farmers who produce paintings as a side job when the fields are left to rest.

Dong Ho paintings are often associated with Lunar New Year in Vietnam, because traditionally a large quantity of the outputs are produced for this particular occasion. These New Year pictures, double as good-luck charms, are about happy and prosperous things like healthy children and domestic animals. The scenes depicted are often stylized and symbolic. On the other hand, the Dong Ho artisans also portray topics from daily life, and they display a sharp wit, as the images below will show.

The Technique of Dong Ho Painting

The Woodblock

The Dong Ho paintings are woodblock paintings i.e. the artisans carve the images into wood and then print them on paper. This way they can produce large quantity of pictures with consistent quality. Such carved woodblocks can be used for generations, and they are carefully kept as heirlooms. Most Dong Ho artisans have the same repertoire i.e. they produce similar images, and it's likely that they share ideas and inspirations, although it is also likely each family has its secrets.

For one picture, several woodblocks are needed, each for a different color. The "line art", which is always black will be printed first. Then colours are added such that the colour covering wider area in the image will come before that covering less area.

"Line art" block for a picture

¨Block

"

Making a block

¨Block

"

The paper

The papers used by Dong Ho artisans for their paintings are made by themselves from the bark of a local tree. For special occasions like holidays, the papers can be coated with power made from grounded shells, which create a "shiny" surface.

Drying the paper

¨Block

"

The "Good Luck" Paintings

These paintings are made with wishes for a good life in mind. As mentioned above, the Dong Ho artisans are farmers, and their definitions of "good life" are reflected through these images: pics with piglets and hens with chicks (symbol of prosperity), children with chickens (prosperity again, combined with a happy family).
  • Festive

    A child holding a domestic animal is a common motif in New Year pictures. Here the animal is the chicken, so probably the painting was oriented towards rural clientèle.

    If you see the child holding a carp instead, don't be surprised: it is a symbol of the wish for success, especially academically (the carp refers to an old legend about a very high fall that touches the sky. If a fish can swim against the flow to the top of the fall, it will become a dragon. The carp is often drawn to represent all fishes, I don't know why. In this context, it symbolizes potential for future greatness: the child is just a child in the present but can achieve great success later in life).
  • Festive
  • Festive

    Can you see the yin-yang symbol on the body of the pigs? The local pigs actually have small swirls on their fur, and these are stylized as the yin-yang circle. When there is balance, all is well with the world!

The Daily Life Paintings

These paintings are taken from real life, about what can be seen with one's own eyes (some of these scenes exist until today). The artisans depict what they know best: rural life in the Red River plain.
  • Working

    Daily

    Farmer and water buffalo resting. There are even two birds catching the ticks on the water buffalo's back. Really relaxing!
  • Daily

    Traditionally, water buffaloes are left grazing on the field and it is often the children's (mostly boys) jobs to see that the buffaloes do not eat rice or whatever planted. The task is probably rather boring so the child finds something to amuse himself. By the way, a boy playing bamboo flute on a water buffalo's back is an image representing "peaceful rural life" in Vietnam.
  • Daily

    This is a more hardworking (or ambitious) boy. He is using the time to review his lesson. In the past, it was often said that many great scholars and officials (these two positions go hand in hand under Confucianism) started out by learning on the water buffalo's back.
  • Daily

    This one is rather special: it depicts the new things (as well as way of life) brought by the French into Vietnam by the end of the 19th century. Note that the writing is still in Han characters, meaning that the French influence had probably not been for long. I wonder what it feels like being exposed to a completely different culture in one's own homeland all of a sudden.
  • Entertainment

    Daily

    Young women playing popular musical instruments. There is probably no need for explanation in the case of the flute and the mandolin-like instrument. The third one is coins strung on a wooden frame and the fourth is simply two wooden sticks, these two instruments are use to keep the beat.
  • Daily

    Trying to catch a goat while being blindfolded. This is a traditional game in the spring festival celebrating New Year.

The Satire Paintings

Given that the Dong Ho paintings were more or less "commercial" (in the sense that the artisans made them to sell), I'm always curious about who first made these paintings and for what purposes, because these pictures are probably not for decoration and they are not good-luck charms for sure. They are first and foremost satires of society, sometimes subtle, sometimes direct. These paintings are also my favourites :)!
  • Daily

    This one is fable-like. The story goes thus: the mice are planning a wedding and they bribe the cat so that their wedding would go undisturbed. Who the mice and the cat are, as well as why bribery is necessary, is up to one's own interpretation. The most common understanding is that this painting is about corruption: the cat receives the bribe and ignores the mice, going against its duty. It can also be about bullying as the weak (mice) must please the strong (cat) to survive.
  • Daily

    In the past, polygamy was legitimate in Vietnam. A man could have only one official wife, but he was allowed by law to keep concubines and mistresses. So things get... complicated. The wife (on the left) shows her displeasure most emphatically. ^__^;
  • Daily

    Frogs (or toads? I cannot tell) going to school. My friend tells me this is a satire but I cannot directly see where the sarcasm is. My guess is that as frogs are portrayed as narrow-minded in a Vietnamese idiom, a school for frogs taught by an old frog is probably not very educational.

Comments, or questions (I'd do my best to answer them)

  • Bob Apr 21, 2012 @ 4:13 pm | delete
    Hello i have a large painting on wood that was signed by songho.. it has shells in the woodwork and is lacquer painting of rice paddy pickers. colors brighten when hit with light,,, would you have any info on it,,, thanks Bob
  • Musicalcroc Apr 21, 2012 @ 4:28 pm | delete
    Sorry, I can't help you as I don't recognize the artist's name. Maybe this site will be helpful http://www.asia-art.net/vietnam_lacquer.html. Good luck.
  • Tipi Mar 11, 2011 @ 9:37 am | delete
    I enjoy traditional art forms, maybe the artists aren't professional but their art is such a wonderful contribution to culture. I love how you explain such things as having a chicken in a picture as the animal that it means that that piece was oriented toward a rural audience. Very nicely done.
  • poutine Dec 9, 2010 @ 12:05 pm | delete
    Very well done lens.
  • WordCustard May 11, 2010 @ 5:45 pm | delete
    This is very well done and also very interesting. Love all that personal commentary. Leaving an ~*~* Angel Blessing *~*~ for this unique lens.
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Musicalcroc

Since I have done a lens on modern(ish) Vietnamese art, I may as well make one on one line of traditional art of the country. Being no expert, I just... more »

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