Georgette Chen was born in Zeijang Province, China in 1906. Her father was a businessman who had business interests in Paris and New York and she spent her early years in education in these cities at the Academie Colarossi, Academie Biloul and the Art Student's League. She left Shanghai with her family when she was three.

She arrived in Singapore in 1954 and began teaching art immediately at Nanyang Academy of Fine Art. Her early work in such paintings as Still Life with Cut Apple and Orange (1928 - 1930) suggest the influence of French painters like Cezanne, where her dynamic brushstrokes combined with dark, energetic heavy tones enabled her to depict volume and texture.

Not given to emotional displays of the artistic temperament, her approach was disciplined and methodical. Liu Kang wrote of her:

'…During her long years of teaching at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, she transmitted to her students not only fundamental knowledge and techniques, but also the ethics of artistic creation, and her hope that they would not be confined by what they learnt from the past, but would be able to break new ground and create their own expressions…'

A pioneer artist in more ways than one, she was a true exponent of Western art in Singapore at the time and is widely recognized to be Singapore's most important female artist. Her subjects are culled from her travels through China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. Her eye for composition and colour all emphasize her belief that all elements in her painting should be executed with deliberation to the whole and with only the right amount of expression needed. Her calculated but sensitive approach can be seen in famous works like Self Portrait (1946), Mosque in Kuala Lumpur (1957) and Singapore Waterfront (1958). In the former, a classical approach to portraiture is taken, with minimal lines, meager colours and strict composition where one or two elements (her eyes in this case and the harmonious blend of colours) objectively highlight aspects of the personality of the sitter. The other two paintings are fine examples of skilled draughtsmanship, compositional mastery and a fine feeling for the moods, atmospheres and rhythms of the scene conveyed through a variety of brushstroke techniques and colour rendition.

She was a Cultural Medallion winner in 1985. She taught at NAFA till 1980 and lived a relatively modest lifestyle to say the least. Her works are displayed at the Singapore Art Museum and other public and private institutions.

- By Gerald Chew
© 1999 Gerald Chew