These three photographs show Low Kway Song’s portrait of Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975), the head of state of the Chinese Nationalist government between 1928 and 1949. Low Kway Song (1889-1982) was a pioneering artist who painted portraits of many prominent personalities in Singapore and Malaysia. He became the first artist to be paid a four-figure fee when he was commissioned to paint a portrait of the magnate Oei Tiong Ham in 1927. Low Kway Song established the first Straits Chinese Methodist Church in Malacca and in 1940 he became the Pastor of the Malacca Straits Chinese Methodist Church, where services were conducted in Baba Malay. Part of an archive which provides a record and glimpse into his personal life and artistic practice, this came from a collection which belonged to Low Kway Song.
