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.The decade from 1955 to 1965 is considered the golden period in Lim’s artistic oeuvre as many of his best works were produced then. Prior to his retirement in 1966, Lim devoted his Sundays to painting, often travelling around Singapore in search of subject matter. Rivers and coasts are popular choices. ‘Masts at Kallang Port’ displays Lim’s compositional prowess as the grey bands that make the horizon and clouds give visual balance to the left which is dominated by boats and tall masts.
