Unknown: Ngoc Son Temple
The Artist and Work of Art
The painting of Ngoc Son Temple is a watercolour painted onto silk using Chinese brushes. Often this kind of image is rolled and only shown on special occasions (the University of Canberra has a range of silk paintings in the collection). The fact that the work has been framed has moved the image into a western cultural context. At this stage, almost nothing is known about the artist or when the work of art was created. It is very likely that it was created sometime between 1980 to 1995.
Ngoc Son Temple, which translates as the temple of the Jade Mountain, is a sacred site situated on the Haon Kiem Lake in the city of Hanoi in Northern Vietnam. The temple was built in the classical Vietnamese style and is dedicated to General Tran Hung Doa who defeated the Mongals in the 13th Century.