The Old Sikh

Lim Cheng Hoe (1912-1979) was born in Amoy, China and 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. In this early work of an old man, Lim utilises an impressive range of marks from short, firm lines to light, flowing strokes, to describe different textures and forms. The work demonstrates Lim's fine draughtsmanship, acute observation skills and ability to translate the nuances of the sitter onto paper.