Lacquer painting is a form of painting with

lacquer Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity. Asian lacquerware, which may be c ...

which was practised in East Asia for decoration on

lacquerware Lacquerware are objects decoratively covered with lacquer. Lacquerware includes small or large containers, tableware, a variety of small objects carried by people, and larger objects such as furniture and even coffins painted with lacquer. Befor ...

, and found its way to Europe and the Western World both via

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

and the Middle East and by direct contact with Continental Asia. The artistic form was revived and developed as a distinct genre of fine art painting by Vietnamese artists in the 1930s; the genre is known in Vietnamese as " sơn mài." WLA haa Badger Studying a Sutra by Shibata Zeshin

WLA haa Badger Studying a Sutra by Shibata Zeshin

Technique

Making a lacquer painting may take several months depending on the technique used and the number of layers of lacquer. In Vietnam's ''sơn mài'' lacquer painting, a black board is prepared first. Then colour chalks are used on the prepared board for base sketch. Needles can also be used for carving the base sketch as an alternative. In lacquer painting, eggshells are used as white colour due to the lack of pure white colour in lacquer. Layers of clear varnish can be applied optionally depending on the purpose of the painting. Polishing is done in the end to reveal the different layers of colours applied before. The first layer of coloured lacquer is applied, usually followed by silver leaf and another layer of clear lacquer. Then several more layers of different coloured lacquers are painted by a brush, with clear lacquer layers between them. In Vietnam, an artist may apply up to ten layers or more of coloured and clear lacquer. In Ming China artwork, up to a hundred layers are included. Each layer requires drying and polishing. When all layers are applied, the artist polishes different parts of the painting until the preferred colours are shown. Fine sandpapers, a mix of charcoal powder and human hair are used to carefully reach the correct layer of each specific colour. Consequently, "lacquer painting" is in part a misnomer, since the bringing out of the colours is not done in the preparatory painting but in the burnishing of the lacquer layers to reveal the desired image beneath. Therefore, lacquer painting is considered a "subtracting method" of drawing technique.

National styles

East Asia

China

Lacquer painting over wood3, Northern Wei

Lacquer had been used since the

Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty a ...

(1384-1111 BCE) for decoration and preservation of wooden objects. By the

Han dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...

decoration had become more intricate. Lacquer painting is sometimes used for decoration of wooden objects such as the traditional " Chinese candy box".

Japan

In Japan lacquer painting is secondary to techniques such as silver inlay,

Maki-e is a Japanese lacquer decoration technique in which pictures, patterns, and letters are drawn with lacquer on the surface of lacquerware, and then metal powder such as gold or silver is sprinkled and fixed on the surface of the lacquerware. The ...

Japanese lacquerware is a Japanese craft with a wide range of fine and decorative arts, as lacquer has been used in '' urushi-e'', prints, and on a wide variety of objects from Buddha statues to ''bento'' boxes for food. The characteristic of Japanese lacquerwar ...

, and carving on

Kamakura-bori is a form of lacquerware from Kamakura, Japan. It is made by carving patterns in wood, then lacquering it with layers of color. It is then polished. In the Kamakura period (1185–1333), carved lacquer from the Song Dynasty of China was imp ...

, and Ryukyuan lacquerware. Painting featured on the "

Japanning Japanning is a type of finish that originated as a European imitation of East Asian lacquerwork. It was first used on furniture, but was later much used on small items in metal. The word originated in the 17th century. American work, with ...

" works of industrial Britain.

Korea

The Korean art of ''najeon'' also involved lacquer painting, with najeonchilgi a particular kind of Korean handicraft.

Europe

Russia

Russia's tradition of lacquer painting (Russian: лаковая живопись, ''lakovaya zhivopis'') before the revolution was connected with folk art and production of icons. The Fedoskino miniature (Russian: федоскинская миниатюра) of Fedoskino village is a genre of lacquer miniature painting on

papier-mâché upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti upright=1.3, Papier-mâché Catrinas, traditional figures for day of the dead celebrations in Mexico Papier-mâché (, ; , literally "chewed paper") is a composite material consisting of p ...

, originating from the late 18th century. From the 1930s this genre also began to be used in proletarian art. Russian lacquer painting is built up through several layers of varnish, creating a three-dimensional effect.

Southeast Asia

Vietnam

Lacquer painting, known as ''sơn mài'', from the resin of the sơn tree, Rhus succedanea, was developed in Vietnam as a freestanding form, separate from decoration of wooden objects. A revival and a combination with French techniques occurred in the 1930s which was closely associated with the French teachers and Vietnamese students of the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine in

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi i ...

from 1925 to 1945 such as

Joseph Inguimberty Joseph Inguimberty (18 January 1896, in Marseille – 8 October 1971, in Menton) was a French painter, and teacher at the École des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine (EBAI) in Hanoi 1926–1945. His teaching was appreciated for being less academic th ...

and Nguyễn Gia Trí.Thavibu Gallery for Modern Asian Contemporary Arts Paintings
"The first lacquer paintings were quite traditional in expressing scenes of natural beauty. Later, lacquer paintings promoted socialist and communist values. However, since Vietnam became more outward-looking in the 1980s and 1990s, young .." Among the prominent newer generation of Vietnamese lacquer painters is Cong Quoc Ha, who received numerous awards and his works are regularly exhibited worldwide.