Footnotes

• Provenance:
  private collection, southern California
  
  Famed Indonesian-Chinese painter Lee Man Fong was one of the most important twentieth century artists of Southeast Asia. Having studied first with a Lingnan painter and then with a teacher of western oil painting in Singapore, Lee was further able to explore western painting when he studied in Holland in the late 1940s to early 1950s. His unique blending of eastern and western painting techniques and sensitivities earned him many admirers both during his lifetime and after.
  The current lot depicts a young woman from a Chinese fishing family. The wide woven straw hat is typical of the type worn by fishermen in southern China to protect them from harsh sunlight. Although undated, this painting is likely an early work, perhaps reminiscent of his childhood days in his birthplace of Guangzhou, China, or of his formative years studying painting in Singapore. Lee's powerful strokes using a palette knife to highlight the texture of the young woman's clothing contrast with his smooth handling of paint to describe her luminous face. The artist's keen observation of his subject, as well as the realities of her everyday life, clearly shows in this sensitive portrait.

Lot heading

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Category: Asian Art

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