Chanh was born into a poor but learned family . He received a classical Sino-Vietnamese education before going to a school run by the French colonial administration. At the age of 33 he was admitted to the Indochinese College of Fine Art, which opened in 1925, and he graduated in 1931. Brought up with traditional art he found it difficult to adapt himself to western oil painting and other modern subjects. He preferred the subject of peasant life using the traditional method of painting on silk to which he brought poetry, new grace of soft color, full of shades and suggestions. .

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