[Not titled] (Pulau Saigon with a View of Supreme Court)

This painting depicts the Singapore River on a clear day, with bumboats floating edge to edge. In the middleground, shophouses and high-rise buildings compete for space in the Clarke Quay area, while the dome of Supreme Court stands alone in the far distance.

Today, this view has changed dramatically. Supreme Court is now part of National Gallery Singapore, and the view of the dome from this vantage point is blocked by even taller buildings that have replaced the high-rise buildings in the painting. And while bumboats still run, they ferry tourists instead of goods for sale.

Lim witnessed many of these changes in the Singapore landscape, and always sought to portray it as it was by painting plein-air. As we have explored in the earlier stops, plein-air painting seeks to capture the sights as they appear to the painter. Perhaps this is what makes Lim’s works a powerful record of how the country’s landscape has evolved and developed over the years.