Born in China in 1906, Georgette Chen Li Ying received her art education in Paris, New York as well as in Shanghai. Chen’s artistic oeuvre can be divided into three phases, French Period (1927-1933); China-Hong Kong Period (1934-1948) and Penang-Singapore Period (1949-1980). Immensely inspired by her surroundings she produced still lifes, portraits and landscapes from each phase. Settling in Singapore in 1954, she taught at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts till her retirement in 1980. Regarded as a Pioneer Artist of Singapore who developed the Nanyang Style, she was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 1982. Chen passed away in 1993 in Singapore.From the 1930s till his passing in 1944, Eugene Chen was a frequent subject of Chen’s portraits. As Foreign Minister of the Republic of China in the troubled times, he is often depicted as a man deep in thought. The pose in this portrait is reminiscent of Van Gogh’s ‘Portrait of Dr Gachet’.
