Cluster Stop: Portraits

Chen is well-known for her sensitive portrayals of her sitters. While she took on commissioned portrait work as a means of livelihood, she also used it to capture the likeness of her friends and those close to her. Portraits such as Rohani and Family Portrait were of people Chen knew personally. Rohani Ismail, whose portrait is on the left, was one of Chen’s students at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. She was also one of many friends that Chen had in the Malay artistic community. Chen was conversant in the Malay language and exchanged many letters with them in Malay. You can find out more about Chen’s connections with the Malay artistic community through some of the materials in the showcase behind you. Family Portrait, which you see before you, depicts Chen’s long-time friends in a scene that celebrates their familial bonds. The subjects of the portrait, the Chen family, were unrelated to Georgette and were her neighbours when she was living in Penang. It is one of Chen’s rare portraits featuring a larger group of sitters. Each family member posed separately over different sessions, with Chen directing their poses. The father figure on the top left, Chen Fah Shin, was the last to be drawn. The casual bearing of the sitters creates an air of intimacy and informality. The young girl on the right in Family Portrait is Dorothy Chen, who sat for an earlier painting of Chen’s about two years before this work was made. Chen had a particularly close relationship with Dorothy. They exchanged fond letters frequently, as Dorothy grew well into adulthood.