The art of metal in Vietnam: renewal of forms under French influence at the beginning of the 19th century

Conference at 18:00 p.m. by Anne Fort, Chief Heritage Curator, responsible for the Central Asian and Southeast Asian collections at the Cernuschi Museum.

To mark the Vietnamese summer exhibition at the Cernuschi Museum, running from May 19 to September 8, 2026, a collection of bronze, brass, and silver objects recently acquired by the museum will be presented to the public. These works date from the early 20th century.^e century reflect the mastery of the artisans and the specific Vietnamese taste they instill in their pieces, while extending the iconographic traditions and practices common throughout the Far East. However, from the end of the 19th century onwards,^e In the 19th century, with French colonization in Indochina, Western models circulated in workshops. This phenomenon of reciprocal influences intensified from the 1920s onwards, and new forms responding to typically Western uses appeared, while decorative elements borrowed from European art were incorporated into the most specifically Vietnamese objects.