Georgette Chen

(1907-1992)

The Sam Sui Worker

Footnotes

Provenance
Mr. and Mrs. John Edmund Ryan, acquired directly from the artist in 1961
Thence by descent to the present owner

Exhibited
Singapore, Singapore Polytechnic,  12th Exhibition of Works by Local Artists, 1961, unpaginated, illustrated in black and white and listed as exhibit no. 27

Literature
Her World, Singapore 1961, August 1961, unpaginated, illustrated in colour

張荔英
三水婦女
油彩畫布
約1961年作

簽名：Chen

來源
John Edmund Ryan伉儷於1961年直接得自藝術家
現由其家屬繼承

展覽
「第十二屆當地畫家作品公開展」，新加坡藝術協會，新加坡，1961年4月7至20日，地點於新加坡工藝學院

出版
「三水婦女」，《Her World》，新加坡，1961年8月，無頁數，彩圖
《新嘉坡藝術協會主辦第十二屆當地畫家作品公開展》，新加坡藝術協會，新加坡1961年，無頁數，黑白圖，索引第27號

"The Sam Sui Worker was our choice being a recent work of mine and colourful note of Singapore."

― Georgette Chen (the artist in a letter to P.N. Kennison, 15 April 1961)

The Sam Sui Worker is an exceptional example of the portraiture of artist Georgette Chen (née Zhang Liying), (1907-1992), one of the most celebrated Asian artists of the 20th century and a pioneer of the Nanyang Style.
 
Chen's cosmopolitan background and her unique perspectives as an independent female artist and member of the Chinese diaspora set her and the Sam Sui workers apart from their contemporaries. The Sam Sui Worker, while not a named individual, is not a genre painting observing everyday life of the working class but a portrait of a person whom the viewer is made to feel Chen must have known well.
 
The Immigration Restriction Ordinance (1928), and later the Aliens Ordinance (1933) by the British colonial authority in Singapore, saw strict quotas limiting the number of male Chinese immigrants allowed. This meant the financial burden of breadwinner fell on the women of many poorer Chinese families.
 
The titular Sam Sui worker was one of hundreds of thousands of women who immigrated to Singapore for work mainly from the Sanshui ("Sam Sui" in Cantonese, meaning "three waters") district of Canton (Guangdong today) province in southern China. Arriving in multitudes and forming tight-knit communities, they, like nuns, took vows never to marry. Their sacrifices not only supported their families but helped build modern Singapore. These women also had a reputation for being fierce, aggressive, wary of strangers, and tending to only associate with fellow Sam Sui women, in contrast to Chen's rendition.
 
The Sam Sui Worker is an apt subject for Chen—it contradicts stereotypes and simultaneously acts as a foil to the artist. Both artist and subject experienced stories of loss and found community overseas. Chen and her portrait subject may share in their diasporic origins, but the irony of the privileged, well-to-do Chen painting a blue-collar worker from her privileged position is not lost.
 
The daughter of a Chinese Businessman and married to Eugene Chen, who was China's first Foreign Minister, she was not forced to live the same humble life as her subject. Born in China, she was educated first in New York and later in Paris, where she studied at the Académie Biloul and Académie Colarossi and was influenced by the Post-impressionists. This is apparent in her oeuvre, and Gauguin must have been on her mind when she says:
 
"So you can see why I am fast becoming a tropical plant and desire nothing more than to spend the rest of life painting the vivid motifs of this multi-racial paradise of perpetual sunshine."

― Georgette Chen (in a letter to Dr. and Mrs. Kan, 15 February 1961)

Chen finally settled in Singapore. She worked to support herself financially while pursuing her passion for painting even after the death of both her first and second husbands as one in a handful of women artists practicing in the 1960s. Singapore was Chen's respite, where she developed close friendships that lasted her lifetime – including with the artist Ng Eng Teng and Mrs "Patti" Ryan, who originally acquired this work.
 
Rendering of this very humble Southeast Asian subject with an intimate familiarity and utmost respect sets The Sam Sui Worker apart from the numerous other depictions of Sam Sui women by Chen's peers. Compared to Chen's other portraits, even that of her husband Eugene Chen, The Sam Sui Worker is centred in a verdant backdrop of green, punctuated by bright blue skies. It takes the viewer outdoors and breathes life into a picture space dominated by the sitter.
 
Chen shows us a Sam Sui woman in full regalia in her en plein air element. The striking red hat crowns a beautiful face with high cheekbones, pink lips about to break into a smile, and finely arched brows. Strength manifested in her jawline is balanced with a Duchenne smile.
 
Sinewy bold brushstrokes in bright colours and emphatic linework breathe life and movement. Even the lines on her face are quietly rhythmic and suggest a reserve of strength. The long hard lines of the cangkul's handle in cold grey are strategically placed diagonally across the lower half of canvas and the chest as an important attribute to the craft of the Sam Sui worker.