Image size: 102.5 x 50 cm
Lee Man Fong, born in Canton (Guangzhou), China in 1913, stayed briefly in Singapore before settling in Jakarta in 1932. Studying on a Dutch scholarship from 1946 to 1952, he was one of three first-generation Indonesian painters who obtained their formal art education in the Netherlands. During those years, he travelled and exhibited widely before returning to establish Yin Hua, an artist association in Jakarta in 1955. As his reputation grew, he was made official presidential painter and chief curator of the collection in 1961 by the then President of Indonesia, Soekarno.The naturalistic ‘Pigeons’, executed in oil, demonstrates Lee’s ability to marry Western art aesthetics with distinctively Chinese ink painting sensibilities of gnarled branches, calligraphy and the red signature seal. As he was noted for his robust depictions of fauna in idyllic settings, Lee received many commissions from Chinese businessmen who wanted animals from the Chinese zodiac such as chickens, tigers and horses; other auspicious symbols, for example, goldfish were also popular.
