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 favoured pastel over watercolour for portraiture as the latter proved to be difficult due to its quick drying nature. As a consequence there are few portraits rendered in this medium. This work ‘Malay Woman’ is one of them. It is painted at the time when Lim was studying the human figure in order to refine his skill in representing form.
