Silk painting refers to paintings on silk. They are a traditional way of painting in Asia. Methods vary, but using traditional supplies of 100% silk fabric, stretched in a frame, and applying textile paints or dyes are the beginnings of the process of making textile art.
One of the earliest surviving Chinese silk paintings is a 2-metre long T-shaped painting, dated from around 165 BCE, from the Mawangdui. However, painting on silk quickly gave way to painting on other supports.
Silk painting employs gutta as a resist, allowing fine patterns to be achieved.
Silk painting (Tranh lụa) was a traditional artisanry in Vietnam. There have been some old silk paintings, e.g. portraits of Nguyá» n Trãi, Phùng Khắc Khoan, Trá»Ânh ÃÂình Kiên, Phan Huy Cẩn, Phan Huy ÃÂch, Phan Huy Thá»±c, and Phan Huy Vá»Ânh dated from Lê and Nguyá» n dynasty.
Silk paintings of the modern period in Vietnam were taken up by some of the students and French teachers at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine (EBAI) in Hanoi during the 1930s. The earliest representative of the new interest in silk painting at a 1931 Paris exhibition of silk paintings was NguyỠn Phan Chánh, a student of EBAI who had originally trained in calligraphy, and who struggled with French oil techniques, and so whom the school director Victor Tardieu encouraged to use traditional media.