The Vietnam Fine Arts College, also known as the Hanoi Fine Arts College, was formed in 1955 as the successor to the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine (1925-1945). The college was taken over by the provisional government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) after the August Revolution of 1945. When the struggle against the French intensified in 1950 during the First Indochina War (1947-1954), the college was moved to Đại Từ, Thái Nguyên in the Việt Bắc (Northern Vietnam) Resistance Zone, under the direction of painter Tô Ngọc Vân. In 1954 professors and students returned to Hanoi where, in 1955, the college was reopened as the Vietnam Fine Arts College under the direction of painter Tran Van Can.
