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Lot Essay
Born in Guangdong Province, China in 1913, Lee Man Fong moved to Singapore at the age of three. At 20, he left for Indonesia to further his career as an artist. He is well-regarded for his Eastern style of painting, dominant in his expansive body of works. He was able to combine both Eastern and Western elements of art together harmoniously by painting in oil, a medium viewed as being Westernized at the time, to depict distinctly Southeast Asian themes.
The Barber (Lot 3321) is an exquisite work from the 1940s, executed just before Lee Man Fong departed for the Netherlands on a Milano scholarship. He was to spend six fulfilling years in Europe, absorbing the sights of European cities and country, painting in oil, perfecting the sense of verisimilitude in his paintings and broadening the scope of his painterly subjects. However, particularly commonplace subjects and scenes from Indonesian life was what Lee Man Fong was best known for painting and The Barber is one such subject. Most of Lee's paintings are colourfully alive, vividly realistic and capable of evoking intense emotions despite their simple narratives. The Barber reveals Lee's sophisticated handling of the everyday subject and exemplifies his mastery of the Western materials and pigments to reflect his Eastern ideals by painting with earthy Oriental colours. The lightness of his brushstrokes gives the oil painting an appearance similar to that of a traditional ink painting at first glance.
To Lee Man Fong, 'art is an essence of culture without the form of written words but only strokes that tell directly anyone regardless of time, race and language'. Painting from life, the barber and the native getting his hair cut in the painting are not figments of Lee Man Fong's imagination; rather, they are very much part of the Indonesian life, which Lee Man Fong immortalizes through the synthesis of the attitudes of European art, with the style and composition of traditional Chinese ink paintings. In this regard, Lee manages to capture his world in a manner that is harmonious and halcyon, but simultaneously dynamic and full of depth.
The Barber (Lot 3321) is an exquisite work from the 1940s, executed just before Lee Man Fong departed for the Netherlands on a Milano scholarship. He was to spend six fulfilling years in Europe, absorbing the sights of European cities and country, painting in oil, perfecting the sense of verisimilitude in his paintings and broadening the scope of his painterly subjects. However, particularly commonplace subjects and scenes from Indonesian life was what Lee Man Fong was best known for painting and The Barber is one such subject. Most of Lee's paintings are colourfully alive, vividly realistic and capable of evoking intense emotions despite their simple narratives. The Barber reveals Lee's sophisticated handling of the everyday subject and exemplifies his mastery of the Western materials and pigments to reflect his Eastern ideals by painting with earthy Oriental colours. The lightness of his brushstrokes gives the oil painting an appearance similar to that of a traditional ink painting at first glance.
To Lee Man Fong, 'art is an essence of culture without the form of written words but only strokes that tell directly anyone regardless of time, race and language'. Painting from life, the barber and the native getting his hair cut in the painting are not figments of Lee Man Fong's imagination; rather, they are very much part of the Indonesian life, which Lee Man Fong immortalizes through the synthesis of the attitudes of European art, with the style and composition of traditional Chinese ink paintings. In this regard, Lee manages to capture his world in a manner that is harmonious and halcyon, but simultaneously dynamic and full of depth.