Lee Man Fong (1913-1988)

A pair of white doves

signed and stamped (in black and red lower left)

oil on board, 86x40 cm (within the passe-partout)

Provenance:
-Private collection, the Netherlands.

Lee Man Fong was born in Guangzhou (Canton), China in 1913. His father, a merchant, decided to migrate to Singapore in 1916. As a young boy Lee Mang Fong used his skill in painting advertisements and artwork, and settled down in Batavia (Jakarta) in 1932. In the years 1946-1952 he lived in the Netherlands after having been granted a scholarship by acting governor-general Huib van Mook. He studied European masters and had various exhibitions in Amsterdam and The Hague.

Because of this western training he received, his primary objective has always been the merging of the two worlds: Chinese and Western painting. His technique is always Western, the understanding of light and shading, the manoeuvering of his brush and oil, and the application of the perspective are apparant in his works, whilst his sensibilities remain distinctly rooted in the Orient.

This harmony intended by Lee Man Fong also seems to have been achieved in this painting ‘Two white doves, one sitting and one flying’. The symbolic meaning behind it: Doves show you how to compassionately embrace your loved ones. Rather than being associated with young love as it is in the West, the Chinese association of the dove is with long life and fidelity as doves stay together for life.