Born in Guangdong Province, China, Chen Chong Swee (1910-1985) came to Singapore in 1931 shortly after graduating from Xinhua Academy of Art, Shanghai. He co-founded the Salon Art Society (now the Singapore Society of Chinese Artists) in 1935 and was a teacher with Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts for over 20 years. In 1952, Chen, together with fellow artists Chen Wen Hsi, Cheong Soo Pieng and Liu Kang, went on what would eventually turn out be a historically significant trip to Bali, Indonesia in search of new inspiration and subject matter. As one of the first artists instrumental in developing the Nanyang Style, Chen pioneered attempts to interpret local landscapes according to the Chinese concept of pictorial composition with Western watercolour techniques.A realist, Chen’s works are often inspired by his surroundings as he believed that a painting must be relevant to the viewer. Here, Chen rendered a pig farm, a common scene in the early days of Singapore. Interestingly, although the composition adopts the Western linear perspective, the depiction of the bamboo and foliage is in the style of traditional Chinese ink painting.
