Frame size: H75 x W88 x D8.3 cm
Born in China in 1906, Georgette Chen Li Ying received her art education in Paris, New York as well as in Shanghai. Chen’s artistic oeuvre can be divided into three phases, French Period (1927-1933); China-Hong Kong Period (1934-1948) and Penang-Singapore Period (1949-1980). Immensely inspired by her surroundings she produced still lifes, portraits and landscapes from each phase. Settling in Singapore in 1954, she taught at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts till her retirement in 1980. Regarded as a Pioneer Artist of Singapore who developed the Nanyang Style, she was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 1982. Chen passed away in 1993 in Singapore.Although known for her still life works and portraits, Chen was equally prolific in painting landscapes. Dividing Chen’s artistic oeuvre into three phases, this work belongs to the second phase, when Chen was in China and Hong Kong. The use flat colours for the temple and the freedom of the brush strokes in the trees and grassy foliage show Chen’s deft handling of the oil medium.
