Portrait of Vu Dan Tan by Bui Xuan Phai.

Bui Xuan Phai (1920 - 1988), a graduate from the Indochina Fine Arts School in Hanoi and now one of the most renowned names among Hanoi modern painters in the 20th century. Apart from his famous paintings of the Hanoi Old Quarter, Phai in his long career had worked on various subject matters and themes, including still-lives, landscapes, paintings of traditional Cheo theatre, and portraits.

His numerous portraits, both drawings and paintings, reflect a French artistic style moulded by his early academic training. His works also illuminate a tight connection between the artist and his models; the portraits are often expressive and detailed.

Maintaining close ties with Vu Dan Tan, Bui Xuan Phai had been a regular visitor to Vu Dan Tan's studio. They would - between drinking Vietnamese alcohol and smoking hookah - have long discussions and make portraits of each other and other guests. The collection presented here are mainly portraits of Vu Dan Tan and Natasha Kraevskaia; the other works produced by Phai at the studio were all given to the models. Bui Xuan Phai had once mentioned that he was not used to making portraits of foreign people, making Natasha Kraevskaia, as asserted by Tran Hau Tuan (an art collector) and Bui Thanh Phuong (son to Bui Xuan Phai), the artist’s most-painted foreign face (Tran Hau Tuan, Bui Thanh Phuong, Bui Xuan Phai. Cuoc doi va tac pham, Hanoi, Vietnam, 1998, p 347,527).