According to a document we have kept, at the first and only exhibition of Trong Kiem with the title “Painting exhibition of artist Nguyen Trong Kiem” organized by Vietnam Visual Artists Association and Vietnam Industrial Fine Art University from 7th to 25th February 1987; total paintings of exhibition is 96, all of oil, included about 30 landscapes. In 30 landscapes, there were 9 paintings titled “Mountain scene” were numbered 1 to 9, not in order of time. These nine paintings were painted from 1982 to 1984. If we follow the created year – 1983 and the dimension 60×80 cm, then this painting introduced here perhaps was one of the “Mountain scene” numbered 3 to 6. And certainly, it’s characteristic for painting style of Trong Kiem in the last period, that he died in 1991.
Number of landscapes in the exhibition means that the artist’s fond of painting about landscape.
In Vietnam modern painting, Trong Kiem is a typical “programed” artist. His art progressed sequentially from romantic realism to a new symbolic and decorative style of realism, deeply with his personality, and always romantic. His paintings are immediately recognizable “by Trong Kiem” by just one glimpse, almost totally isolated from all sources of influence which he has diligently researched, consulted, studied and transformed into an independent value with Vietnam feature which can only be found in a rare amount of truly talented painters.
