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.Although Lim is known best for his landscapes, he had also produced many portraits. In the mid 1950s, Lim concentrated on portraiture as he felt it could help him refine his representation of form. An excellent watercolourist, Lim’s preferred medium for portraiture however was pastel.as he felt it lends itself better to the description of skin tones and textures. The title refers to the cap depicted; it is worn by Malay men.
