Nguyen Tu Nghiem is known for his innovations in lacquer painting, a Vietnamese staple, and among his repertoire is the depiction of Chinese (also Vietnamese) lunar zodiac animals. Significantly, this painting was done in 1991, the Year of the Goat, and Nghiem himself had confided that he was a goat, being born in 1919 instead of his universally recorded birthyear of 1922, the Year of the Dog. The goat is the eighth zodiac animal known for its mild moderate temperament, and is humble, hardworking and determined. Some even put his year of birth as 1918, the Year of the Horse. There is an apparent affinity for goats in this work, shown in pair and with a kid in tow. Nguyen Tu Nghiem is revered in Vietnamese art as among the great quartet, with the others being Duong Bich Lien, Nguyen Sang and Bui Xuan Phai, whom he studied together at the Indo-China Fine Arts College between 1941-1946, the 15th intake under Joseph Inguimberty, To Ngoc Van and Nam Son, and his graduating was delayed when the Japanese ousted the French in March 1945. Like Phai, he won the Ho Chi Minh Prize for art in 1996, but for the politically persecuted Phai, it was posthumous. He was last of the quartet to have died, in 2016 (June 15) in Hanoi. Influenced by Nguyen Do Cung and To Ngoc Van, he won 1st Prize at the Salon Unique in 1944 for his Literature Temple Guard. He took part in the anti-French resistance war and land reforms in the early 1950s, and also taught art at the Viet Bac revolution base. He also taught at his alma mater and the Hanoi Industrial Fine Arts University.