Born in 1931 in China, Chua Mia Tee migrated to Singapore in 1937. A graduate from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1957, Chua is a highly regarded master of portrait painting. Chua has painted portraitures of prominent public figures, including presidents and prime ministers of Singapore. Besides portraitures, Chua also paints nationalistic and local scenes of Singapore, which serve as historical documentations of the nation’s changing landscape.A realist painter, Chua has captured many vanished scenes of Singapore and documented them in his works. Here, Chua depicts a Chinese fortune telling minstrel playing a ‘ruan’ (a traditional Chinese moon-shaped lute) to a small audience, a mature Chinese lady and a young girl. By illuminating only the minstrel and showing the backs of the audience, Chua directs the viewer’s eye towards the main subject of the work.
