Lee Man Fong, Cairo Street Scene, 1978
Pastel and gouache on paper
60 x 40 cm (visible), 92 x 72 x 3 cm (framed)
Condition: Very good
Proof of purchase available
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Acquired from the artist’s daughter in 1978, with a handwritten receipt of purchase available.
Lee Man Fong’s final solo exhibition in Singapore was held at the National Museum Art Gallery, where proceeds from sales were donated to the National Kidney Foundation.
Highlights from the exhibition included a portrait of Qi Baishi, depictions of Balinese dancers, and travel sketches from India, Italy, and Egypt. In these works, Man Fong approached each sketch as a complete composition, regardless of medium. This is similarly evident in the present Cairo Street Scene, where the mule and its carriage, illuminated by sunlight, form a cohesive and balanced image.
Although this piece was not included in the exhibition itself, it was purchased directly from the artist’s daughter that same week in January 1978.
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Lee Man Fong (Indonesian, 1913-1988) was a Chinese-Indonesian painter recognised for his use of Chinese brush traditions with Western oil painting techniques. Born in Guangzhou, he moved to Singapore as a child before relocating to Batavia in 1932. After his father’s death, he supported his family through commercial illustration while developing his painting practice. His early training was shaped by the Lingnan school of painting, known for modernising Chinese ink traditions, which he later combined with European oil techniques. This synthesis of East and West placed him within the broader Nanyang style, a regional modernist movement where overseas Chinese artists fused traditional Chinese aesthetics with Western media and Southeast Asian subjects.
In 1946, Lee Man Fong received a Dutch government scholarship and lived in the Netherlands for several years, exhibiting widely before returning to Indonesia in 1952. By the mid-1950s, he had become a prominent cultural figure, eventually appointed as official painter to President Sukarno and later serving as curator of the Presidential Palace art collection. His work ranged from portraits and street scenes to depictions of everyday life in Indonesia, all characterised by a disciplined sense of composition and a restrained, lyrical palette.
(Photographed in October 2025)