Hàm Nghi (1871 – 1944), exiled emperor and first modern Vietnamese artist

Conference ofAmandine Dabat, Doctor of art history, Paris-Sorbonne University (Paris IV).

During this conference, Amandine Dabat presents the exceptional career of Hàm Nghi (1871 – 1944), Emperor of Vietnam exiled in Algeria from 1889 where he became the first modern Vietnamese painter trained by the French. His story is known thanks to the discovery of his private archives, which represent 5 pages kept by his family; cross-referenced with the colonial fund partly kept in Vietnam as well as at the National Archives of Overseas in Aix-en-Provence, they allowed Amandine Dabat to write the biography of her ancestor.

Born in 1871, Hàm Nghi ascended the throne in 1884. The French protectorate had been signed since 1883; the French legation was installed within the citadel to put pressure on the Vietnamese. During the summer of 1885, the Minister of War, who was also regent, tried to push the French out of the citadel. Following his failure, the entire court fled to the mountains while the Hué palace was ransacked. After two days, the court returned to the citadel but the regent took the emperor and declared, in his name, anti-colonial resistance against the French. Indeed, this event was part of the context of the French colonization of Indochina. The protectorate was applied in Vietnam to three regions that had become different administrative entities: Tonkin, Cochinchina and Annam. The latter is the central part of the country and corresponds to the region governed by Emperor Hàm Nghi.

Anonymous, Annam: Capture of the ex-king Hàm Nghi by French officers. United States, 1888. Reproduction. Newspaper engraving. Bridgeman Images GCL3416343. ©Granger / Bridgeman Images.

Nguyen Van Cam (Kong Dong), Ham Nghi and his regent Thuyet leading the anti-colonial resistance. Algiers, 1890s. Ink and pigments on paper. Ham Nghi collection, PHN 49. Private collection.

The French tried to find the fugitive emperor. Finally, after three years of searching, they captured him on October 29, 1888 following the betrayal of the head of his guard. He was sent to Algeria, which was then a French department. Aged 18, Hàm Nghi arrived in Algiers on January 13, 1889. He was welcomed by the French authorities who were surprised to welcome a young man suffering from malaria and not a dangerous enemy. A so-called "benevolent" policy was then applied towards him; negotiations between the French authorities in Algeria and those in Indochina took place to determine the conditions of the emperor's detention. The latter was finally installed in a neo-Moorish villa on the heights of Algiers. Hàm Nghi then took French lessons, but also drawing and painting lessons from Marius Reynaud who gave him a teaching similar to that of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Although this was initially a way of making him "pro-French" in case he was returned to the throne of Annam, Hàm Nghi ultimately developed a passion for the field of Fine Arts and began to practice his art every day.

Most of the deposed emperor's surviving works are landscapes, but records have revealed that he also painted still lifes, portraits, and architectural views. Two paintings depicting landscapes (Untitled, 1889 and 1890, oil on canvas, private collection) are among the oldest works known. Dated to the end of the 1890s, they bear witness to his technique; the vanishing lines drawn in pencil are still visible on these two works.

Its Autoportrait (1896, graphite on paper, private collection), made from a photograph, is one of only two drawings by Hàm Nghi currently preserved. The works that have come down to us are those that he gave to his relatives or that he took with him before the Algerian War, which led to the destruction of his villa and the paintings it contained. Today, between 130 and 150 works have come down to us.

Hàm Nghi (1871-1944). Untitled. Algeria, January 6, 1903. Oil on canvas, Private collection.

Hàm Nghi (1871-1944), Before the Storm. Algeria, 1904. Dry pastel on paper mounted on canvas. Private collection

The tree motif is particularly present in Hàm Nghi's landscapes. Amandine Dabat puts forward several hypotheses regarding the regularity of this motif. First of all, she highlights the possibility of a painting of memory; the tree would be a way of remembering one's native country. The old tree could indeed be the one that marks the place of worship in Vietnam. Hàm Nghi's painting is also inspired by the work of the Barbizon School, which made the tree the main figure of the landscape. Furthermore, this motif could also be a metaphor for the isolation of the exiled emperor.

"I read in my paintings the vicissitudes of my sad thoughts. My joy and their thousand nuances and I go over one by one all the folds of my heart. And it is for me a source from which I draw encouragement and consolation." (Draft letter from Ham Nghi to Colonel de Gondrecourt, January 1, 1897, BHN 4.14, Hàm Nghi Fund).

Two oils on canvas representing landscapes (Untitled, 1899 and 1900-1903, private collection) feature a small character surrounded by abundant nature, in the manner of Chinese painting which represents the latter as a microcosm in its own right. It could be that this small character also represents the solitude of the exile.

The rare portraits made by Hàm Nghi and preserved are that of his wife Marcelle (Marcelle, circa 1905, oil and graphite on canvas, private collection) and that of Saïd, the father of his gardener (Said, circa 1930, oil on wood, private collection).

Hàm Nghi (1871-1944), Marcelle Algeria, Around 1905. Oil and graphite on canvas. Private collection

Hàm Nghi (1871-1944), Saïd. Algeria, Around 1930. Oil on wood. Private collection.

Hàm Nghi (1871-1944), Villa in Mustapha. Algeria, 1904. Dry pastel on paper mounted on canvas. Cernuschi Museum, Paris. MC 2020-24. Anonymous donation

Several retrospectives of Paul Gauguin (1848 – 1903) were organized in Paris in 1903 following his death. Hàm Nghi then discovered his production; the painting The old tree (1905, oil on canvas, private collection) includes new shades of color dear to Gauguin, such as his characteristic mauve or the blue outline, testifying to the influence of this artist on Hàm Nghi.

In 1904, he married Marcelle Laloë, daughter of a magistrate then stationed in Algiers. He became the father of three children to whom he would pass on, as a surname, the nickname given to him by the French authorities, "Prince of Annam". Raised in French culture and the Catholic religion, his children were naturalized French.

Two years later, he had a new neo-Moorish villa built in El Biar called "Gia Long" after the founder of the dynasty from which he came. In his garden, he had a small kiosk (photograph, 1920s-1930s, private collection) in the style of a Vietnamese pagoda and intended for his children's games.

In 1904, Hàm Nghi discovered the medium of pastel. Émile Guimet agreed to exhibit about ten of his pastels in the rotunda of his museum. Characterized by backlighting effects, two works representing a Villa in Mustapha and Fields in El Biar (1904, dry pastel on paper mounted on canvas), today preserved at the Cernuschi Museum, bear witness to a real mastery of this art.

A few years earlier, in 1900, the emperor met Judith Gautier (1845-1917), daughter of Théophile Gautier. Fascinated by his story, she wrote the play The Red Doors inspired by the life of Ham Nghi himself and whose manuscript is now lost. The two met during a visit to the 1900 World's Fair. Initially passionately in love with him, Judith Gautier eventually developed an unwavering friendship with Ham Nghi. In 1901, she created a high relief depicting him (Portrait of the Emperor of Annam Hàm Nghi, 1901, plaster, Pierre Loti Museum). Signed by Ham Nghi himself, it was offered to Pierre Loti.

Hàm Nghi (1871-1944). Kiosk resembling a Vietnamese pagoda in the garden of the “Gia Long” estate. El Biar, Algeria. 1920s-1930s. Reproduction. Photograph. Private collection.

Hàm Nghi (1871-1944), Avenue of trees (Evian). France, 1911. Oil on canvas. Private collection

When he travels, Hàm Nghi takes his equipment with him, as in Saint-Hilaire where he works in series, inspired by the Impressionists and their study of the variations of light on the same landscape. The oil on canvas entitled Deli Ibrahim hillsides (Algiers) painted in 1908 in Algeria, donated by his family to the Museum of Fine Arts in Hanoi a month ago, also bears witness to his post-impressionist research close to pointillism. Similarly, the work Avenue of trees (Evian) dated 1911 (private collection) is inspired by the work of the Nabis. Thus, Hàm Nghi appropriates Western Fine Arts in the manner of Vietnamese scholars, who choose masters and draw inspiration from them. His production is characterized by stylistic back-and-forths, without linearity, which testify to all the richness of his work and the multiplicity of his influences.

Its main exhibition was set up in 1926. Hàm Nghi, who then went by the name of "Prince Tu-Xuan", exhibited pastels, oils on canvas and sculptures there. The artist's last known oil on canvas was made around 1930; it is a representation of work in the wheat fields in Dordogne, where his daughter had become an agricultural engineer (Untitled, circa 1930, private collection). Finally, in the 1920s, he gradually abandoned paintings to devote himself to sculpture.

In 1899, during a stay in Paris, he met Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) to whom he offered a drawing kept at the Rodin Museum (Naked woman standing, arms hanging down, around 1899, graphite pencil on vellum paper). A whole correspondence between the two artists is preserved at the museum and in the family archives. Rodin welcomed him into his studio to teach him the general principles of sculpture. Hàm Nghi made the bust of his nephew there Jose Ferrer-Laloë (1921, clay, private collection) or that of his father-in-law Francis Laloë (April 1923, bronze, private collection), where the influence of Rodin can be recognized. Among this body of sculptures is also a sculpted representation of Gabrielle Capek (Womens, March 1926, private collection) former governess of his children who became his lover and his muse.

Exhibition of Prince Tû-Xuan (Prince of Annam), November 15-27, 1926, Paris Galerie Mantelet – Colette Weil. Exhibition catalog. Library of the National Institute of Art History, Jacques Doucet collections, CVA1 Tû-Xuan.

Judith Gautier (1845-1917). Portrait of the Emperor of Annam Hàm Nghi. France, 1901. Plaster. Pierre Loti Museum, MPL BI 31.

Ham Nghi (1871-1944). Woman [Gabrielle Capek]. Algeria, March 1926. Bronze. Private collection.

Hàm Nghi (1871-1944). Headboard. Algeria, 1910s-1930s. Lemon or orange wood. Private collections.

In the manner of Vietnamese scholars, Hàm Nghi does not stop at the field of Fine Arts; he also creates works of carpentry and basketwork in his workshop installed in the basement of his villa, like this Bedhead (1910s-1930s, wood, private collection) decorated with the Chinese character for happiness.

Ham Nghi produced works until his death in 1944. Contrary to his wishes, his body could not be repatriated to Vietnam. Although he was often dissatisfied with his work, his production testifies to the blossoming of modern Vietnamese art from its formation, from 1889, and well before the founding of the Hanoi School of Fine Arts in 1924.

Hàm Nghi in his studio, 1938. Private collection.