Hem Vejakorn

Biography

In 1930, when Bangkok celebrated its 150th anniversary, Hem Vejakorn was chosen as one of the artists to renovate the murals of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew). His section was in the gallery, in room 69: a scene from the Ramakien, the Thai version of the Ramayana, in which Rama kills Mangkorn Kan.

He was born on 17 January 1904 in Bangkok, in the Phra Nakhon district. The sources give his year of birth differently: 1903 or 1904. His parents separated, relatives brought the boy up, and he had no settled family. At eleven he went to live with his uncle, the architect Mom Rajawongse Daeng Dinakara. The uncle supervised the Italian artists and architects working on the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall. Through him Hem came to know the artist Carlo Rigoli, the architect Mario Tamagno and the engineer Emilio Giovanni Gollo. Rigoli was in charge of the interior decoration and let the boy carry the paints. He invited him to study in Italy, but Hem could not go.

He received no proper schooling. He attended Assumption College, Debsirin School and Poh Chang College, but finished none of them; the authorities blamed his failures on a lack of parental care. The surname Vejakorn, which he used all his life, came from the family of a doctor who had once looked after him. Throughout this time he kept drawing: he took part in painting the temple of Wat Raja Oros, began to write and learned to play the viola. To earn a living he worked as a tugboat helmsman, as a steam engine mechanic, in the royal irrigation department in Saraburi Province, as a draughtsman in a military department, and as a musician at screenings of silent films. Later he found a job in a printing house and began selling illustrations to magazines.

After the work at Wat Phra Kaew, Hem and some friends founded the Ploenchit publishing house. From 1932 to 1935 it issued illustrated novels at 10 satang each, with covers by Hem. They sold well and are now collected. By other accounts the house was founded in late 1935; the exact date is hard to establish.

In 1936 he opened his own publishing house, Hem Party, and brought out Mai Muangderm’s novel Phae Kao (“The Old Wound”) with his own illustrations. The business went under. Hem went to work for the daily newspaper Pramuan Wan and the weekly journal Pramuan Sarn, both owned by Prince Bidyalongkorn, who wrote under the pseudonym “Nor Mor Sor”. For these publications he also illustrated classic literature, including Khun Chang Khun Phaen and Sri Thanonchai.

During the Second World War he worked for the government of Plaek Phibunsongkhram, drawing nationalist illustrations for school textbooks. After the war he returned to freelance work and produced an illustrated series of ghost stories; by some accounts there were 101 of them. They influenced many Thai artists. Pupils came to him, among them the future cartoonist Payut Ngaokrachang. Payut later made Thailand’s first cel-animated feature film, The Adventure of Sudsakorn, based on the work of Sunthorn Phu.

Hem also illustrated Prince Prem Purachatra’s English-language book An Introduction to Phra Aphai Mani (1952), an introduction to Sunthorn Phu’s epic poem. In the 1950s came Khun Chang Khun Phaen in the same prince’s translation, with Hem’s drawings. In 1963 a series of his illustrations for the poem Lilit Phra Lo was published. His other works include series on Thai history and the life of Sunthorn Phu, and paintings of the life of the Buddha: 80 pictures of the Pathomasomphot and 40 of the Vessantara.

In 1969, shortly before his death, King Bhumibol Adulyadej commissioned oil paintings from him, to be given as gifts to royal guests. Hem died on 16 April 1969 in Thon Buri, at his home in Soi Taksin 1. In 2004 a series of four Thai stamps with his works was issued. The director Wisit Sasanatieng paid tribute to his ghost stories in the film The Unseeable (2006); the Barom Khru Foundation, which says it oversees Hem’s legacy, warned the producers about copyright, and the director replied that the film was not an adaptation but was inspired by Hem’s style.