Traditional New Year painting - Great luck (Vietnamese: Gà Đại Cát)

Southeast Asian Collection

Accession Nr.: 2018.1.5
Type: woodblock print
Date of production:
1960s
Place of production:
Materials/Techniques: paper, coloured woodblock print
Dimensions: height: 35 cm
width: 25 cm
The two characters at the top of the picture, taken in the Đông Hồ workshop in Vietnam, mean "big luck", pronounced the same as "big cock", "big chicken". The picture was sold together with its mirror-symmetrical counterpart, the inscription on the two woodcuts together giving the full good luck message: 'Great fortune welcomes spring' [the spring festival, i.e. the New Year]. The inscription on the picture is a good luck message, but it also brings good luck separately to those born in the year of the rooster.