The Museum of Fine Arts is housed in a beautiful three-storey mansion. It was built in 1930 in the colonial style with added oriental details. The building housed a Catholic girls' school, then the Ministry of Information of the colonial administration. After the country won independence, the house sat empty until 1963, when the Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts opened in it.
The museum's exhibition is the best way to learn about Vietnam's art history. The artworks on display cover the period from ancient times to the present day.
The ground floor is occupied by a collection of ancient artefacts - carved and stone sculptures, ceramics, folk paintings. In the museum, you can trace the evolution of lacquer, the ancient national art of the Vietnamese. The sap of trees in North Vietnam, used to preserve household items, has long since migrated to decorative arts. The technology of lacquer painting and sculpture, initially complex, has been perfected over the centuries, bringing Vietnamese master virtuosos to the world level. The museum has several halls dedicated to lacquer paintings. The collections of ancient ceramics are also interesting.
In the exposition of the colonial period, religious and domestic themes are replaced by motifs of martyrdom, struggle and patriotism. A significant collection, like much of the country, is devoted to the war against colonial dependency and American aggression.
The exhibition of works of the modern period is characterised by a variety of genres and themes, freedom of creativity. A number of works in the manner of impressionism and abstractionism, testify to the artistic activity of contemporary Vietnamese painters.
