Born in Amoy, China in 1912, Lim Cheng Hoe came to Singapore when he was 7. Primarily a self-taught artist, Lim studied art under Richard Walker, Singapore’s first Art Inspector of Schools, at the Raffles Institution in the early 1930s. Lim was a prominent and significant first generation artist due to his treatment of the local landscape in the watercolour medium and is associated with the Nanyang Style. He was also a founding member of the Singapore Watercolour Society. Lim passed away in 1979 in Singapore.Lim spent considerable effort on portraiture in the mid 1950s in order to improve his representation of form in his art. Lim’s acute observation is apparent in the care with which each feature of his subject is articulated. His pencil lines are free and expressive, displaying remarkable control over the medium, with an impressive repertoire of marks from light and barely visible filaments to heavy and dark strokes. Samsui women are Chinese immigrants who worked as labourers in the building and construction industry of early Singapore.
