The inspiration for this painting draws back
to the first days of the French occupation in Vietnam in the late 19th
century. The first attack of French army on the citadel of my home town
Hanoi was on November 20, 1873 by the French soldiers of the captain Francis
Garnier. The general-governor of Hanoi Nguyen Tri Phuong was wounded
and captured by French. He refused to eat and died.
The second attack took place on April 25, 1882 by
the army of the colonel Henri Riviere. The French artillery from the Red
River shot the North gate of the Hanoi citadel. After two hours of fighting
the Hanoi citadel was taken by the French. The general-governor of Hanoi
Hoang Dieu hung himself under a tree inside the Hanoi citadel. In 1888
all the Indochina became under the control of France. In 1907 the French
realized that the king Thanh Thai, who was the 9th king of the last dynasty
in Vietnam - the Nguyen dynasty, had a secret contact with the Dong Du
movement (Travel to the East) to ask for the support of Japan. They forced
the king to resign and sent him to exile in the Reunion island (French
colony) in Africa. The king Duy Tan, who was only a boy at that time, replaced
Thanh Thai. The history of Vietnam later on until 1975 was one of
wars to gain the independence from foreign interventions.
One Sunday morning, on the way
to the Wakoshi subway station, I saw a dead crow on the pavement. All of a sudden, the idea on the composition came to me.
On the painting the burning North gate of the Hanoi
citadel is depicted at the right hand side. At the left hand side the reflection
in the sphere shows a little king and his entourage. The bowl on the ground
in front of the woman contains the famous
Hanoi rice-noodle soup "pho". This "End of the North Gate" was also the beginning
of the long travel through blood and fire of my home country.