General Vo Nguyen Giap by Van Duong Thanh

HA NOI (VNS) — A unique exhibition featuring sketches of the late General Vo Nguyen Giap (1911-2013) by popular artist Van Duong Thanh are on display in downtown Ha Noi.

Titled General Vo Nguyen Giap – Daily Moments with Painting, the exhibition showcases 60 sketches and oil-on-canvas paintings of the General by Thanh, created between March and April 1999. As many as 40 of them are sketches Thanh made at the General's residence on 30 Hoang Dieu Street, while eight oil-on-canvas paintings feature the General's homeland in the central province of Quang Binh.

The General himself signed his name on many of the sketches. There are also three sketches of the artist Thanh by General Giap in the collection.

"Each visit to his house was a great opportunity for me, so I used every single minute to capture his facial impressions," Thanh recalled.

"I used pencils, ballpoint pens and water colour brushes to make the sketches more vivid," she said. "Many sketches were very simple as I drew one in only 15 minutes, then hurried to start another. Yet the General highly appreciated them all. More importantly, they all bear historic meaning."

The exhibition will run until June 7 at the Viet Nam Military History Museum on 28A Dien Bien Phu Street before being moved to Quang Binh and HCM City. — VNS