It all began when André Maire met Émile Bernard in 1914. Father of symbolism, he will have a great influence not only on the production of the young artist but also on his life in general! André Maire joined the colonial infantry following the advice of his mentor. He leaves in 1919 for Vietnam for a year where he discovers a new country and its culture! The famous ruins of Angkor or the city of Dalat were great sources of inspiration for André Maire during this first trip to Indochina. At the same time, he taught drawing at the elitist Chasseloup-Laubat high school in Saigon. When he returned to Europe after other trips to India and Africa in particular, André Maire was appointed professor of drawing at the Higher School of Architecture in Hanoi. The school will be moved to Saigon in 1950. This second trip of the artist to ancient Indochina will be decisive. He will stay until 1958 in the Republic of South Vietnam, from where he had the opportunity to travel to Laos and Cambodia. From this period very colorful gouaches, sketches and oil paintings are born. One finds there at the same time the symbolist influence of Emile Bernard and the classicism of the Parisian formation that André Maire received. He managed to create his own style unlike his peers who depict Indochina under orientalist traits. Religious sculptures, architecture, village inhabitants, different ethnic groups, port and country landscapes... André Maire succeeded in translating pictorially a large part of the Vietnamese culture of the time! His perfect mastery of drawing reveals his desire to transmit his travels on paper as well as possible. See Vietnam as you've never seen it before through unpublished works from a bequest from the artist's daughter in 2019!