Still Life with Cut Apple and Orange

Georgette Chen, Still Life with Cut Apple and Orange, c. 1928 – 1930, oil on canvas, 26 x 34 cm, collection of National Heritage Board

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.

Chen’s ‘Still Life with Cut Apple and Orange’ reveals traces of the influence of Cezanne. Chen combined the use of dynamic brush strokes with dark, heavy tones filled with vigour and energy to suggest volume and texture. The vitality of the colours of the fruits and their different textures contrast with the vague and grey background colours to achieve a calculated and sensitive balance of elements in the painting.