Famous person of the six provinces of the South: Le Trung, painter of the common people

According to author Pham Cong Luan in 'Sai Gon's old spring newspaper', in the memories of many people living in the South before 1975, the impressions from the paintings drawn by artist Le Trung in the spring newspaper never fade.

Famous for portraiture

Painter Le Trung's real name is Le Toan Trung, born in 1919 (year of death unknown), from Long Phu village, Tan Chau district, old Chau Doc province. After graduating from Gia Dinh Fine Arts School, he took the entrance exam to the Indochina Fine Arts College in Hanoi and was the only student from the South to win first place in the official entrance exam in 1933. That year, only 2 people passed the entrance exam to this school: Le Trung (South) and To Van Son (North - according to Tan Chau 1870 - 1964 by author Nguyen Van Kiem).

Spring newspaper cover drawn by artist Le Trung

PHOTO: HOANG PHUONG

Le Trung's forte was drawing portraits, landscapes, still lifes with pastels and watercolors. After teaching in many schools, he opened a large studio and a private class teaching practical painting, training a number of students from many nationalities such as France, America, India... From 1937 to 1964, painter Le Trung participated in exhibitions at home and abroad more than 30 times, such as in France, Italy, Japan, Germany, America, Malaysia, Cambodia... He won many gold and silver medals, won first prizes domestically and internationally in poster competitions in 1938, 1939, first prize for cartoons in 1940 and 1941.

Very famous for his portraiture, artist Le Trung painted many portraits of important figures, politicians and famous artists. In addition, he also collaborated with newspapers and publishers to draw illustrations, historical and children's stories, and occasionally wrote research articles on the subject published under the pen name Tan Chau Tu.

Painter of the common people

Artist Le Trung is well known among the common people, especially in the countryside, because every year he publishes many sets of four seasons paintings. The themes are taken from poetic stories such as Van Tien - Nguyet Nga, Pham Cong - Cuc Hoa, Thach Sanh - Ly Thong, Lam Sanh - Xuan Nuong, Nang Ut Ong Tre, Thoai Khanh - Chau Tuan... This type of comic has 4 panels, each panel has 3 panels, sold at a cheap price, and is popular from urban to rural areas.

In the 1960s, especially during the Lunar New Year or parties, in the thatched houses with bamboo walls in the Southwestern countryside, almost every house hung from 1 to 3 or 4 sets of four-season comic books with bright colors. Under each frame, there were illustrations with 2 or 4 lines of poetry... At the top of each picture or in the right corner of the last picture, the name and signature of the author Le Trung were often printed. In this genre, Le Trung and artist Hoang Luong painted the most.

Student notebook cover drawn by artist Le Trung

PHOTO: HOANG PHUONG

From 1948 to 1954, artist Le Trung was invited to be a collaborator of the French magazine Sud Est Asiatique, specializing in illustration and decoration. At that time, he opened his own studio; at the same time, he undertook to design book covers and draw illustrations, and draw covers for many spring newspapers published in Saigon, such as Saigon Moi, Anh Sang, Tieng Chuong ... In particular, Le Trung's paintings of young women were considered the most valuable compared to other artists.

Since 1958, the Saigon Moi newspaper has published many of his paintings as gifts to readers. These paintings are often accompanied by explanatory poems such as "Young girl in front of Nha Trang's beautiful scenery", depicting a girl in ao dai sitting and posing on a stone pedestal by the sea, arranged in the style of a landscape painting. Below the painting are printed the following poems: "Blue water paints the sea/Silver clouds cover the horizon/A boat looms offshore/Who knows who will confide in her first and last words".

Seascapes, he painted in this genre also in the painting Men Canh Vung Tau , also a girl standing watching the sea with a tilted conical hat. Young woman of the Mekong Delta has the painting The Beauty on the Deserted River depicting a girl in a traditional Vietnamese dress rowing a boat on the canal across the rice fields. The face and demeanor of that young woman can also be seen in the girl holding a bunch of water lilies walking on the village road in the painting Gentle Chau Doc ...

Unique paintings of young girls

Writer To Kieu Ngan in Mac Khach Sai Gon recounted that in 1954, when he and Thanh Nam were editors of the weekly magazine Tham My , he published an article criticizing Ta Ty's Southern paintings. In it, Ta Ty criticized Le Trung's paintings of young women as "all of them looked the same as if they were photographs, lacking creativity", while Le Trung was favored by the majority of readers, especially women, so he received quite a strong reaction.

"Every day the editorial office received letters addressed to the newspaper owner or Ta Ty, and each letter contained harsh criticism. The newspaper owner was very upset. We were also upset, but we were afraid that Ta Ty would be sad, so we hid and destroyed those letters. Then the relationship between the newspaper owner and us became increasingly cold. In the end, we resigned, and the newspaper was suspended and later changed its name to Phu Nu Dien Dan ," To Kieu Ngan said.

The story also tells that painter Phan Phan was very fond of Le Trung's paintings of young women and once when he met his idol, he asked: "The image of the beautiful girl you draw on the cover of the spring newspaper is always a young woman with big, wet eyes, curved eyebrows, full breasts, a slim waist and long, black hair. Is that the image of your wife as many people say?". Painter Le Trung smiled and replied: "People also say that I drew my lover. Actually, that is not the image of my wife, or of any lover. That is just a woman I imagined!".

Le Trung also painted still lifes, the subjects were often Southern specialty fruits such as custard apple, grapefruit, mango, pineapple... In the still life Spring Day , he painted watermelon, red-fleshed papaya, punctuated with plums, star fruit... vividly. In particular, he also painted on the cover of student notebooks with pictures of young girls on the front cover and four-season comics on the back cover, which until now are still unique and rare items sought after by antique collectors. (continued)

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nhan-vat-noi-tieng-nam-ky-luc-tinh-le-trung-hoa-si-cua-gioi-binh-dan-185250702221623889.htm