Self-Portrait

Lim Cheng Hoe is largely known as a self-taught artist, who became a successful watercolour painter. Why did he focus on watercolour, and how did he become one of the most skilled watercolour artists of his generation?

Born in Xiamen in 1912, Lim came to Singapore with his family when he was just a young boy of seven. He was later enrolled in Raffles Institution, where he met Richard Walker. Walker had studied at the Royal College of Art in London, and was appointed Art Master of Government English Schools in Singapore. In Walker’s time here, he improved the standard of art teaching in schools. It was under Walker’s tutorship that Lim was exposed to watercolour, the medium he would devote himself to in years to come.

This self-portrait was done in pastel, a medium Lim would use especially in portraiture. The bright-eyed and assured gaze in this self-portrait recalls Lim’s diary entry from when he was a young man graduating from Raffles Institution. Lim professed, “I believe I have confidence and what is more important some talent within me, and these coupled with perseverance and industry I am not afraid to say that I may make something of a painter.”

Indeed, as you shall discover in this audio tour, Lim was not only talented, he was also persistent and hardworking, always trying to improve his art. Come take a walk with us through Lim Cheng Hoe: Painting Singapore to discover this artist’s mastery of watercolour through his depictions of Singapore.