NGWE GAING (BURMESE 1901-1967)

NGWE GAING (BURMESE 1901-1967)

FIGURES BY A RIVER
signed Ngwe Gaing lower left
oil on canvas laid down on paper
15 x 20cm
unframed

Property from a Private Collection, Hampstead

Provenance
Hans Feibusch, Hampstead
By descent from the above to the present owner

Ngwe Gaing became a leading painter in Burma (now Myanmar) after the Second World War. Of mixed Burmese-Chinese lineage and raised in Dawei, he was part of the well-known Yangon School led by the famous Burmese artist Ba Nyan (1897-1945), who mentored him for three years after his return from England in 1930. Naturalism, light and traditional perspective in the present work and the following lot reflect the cultural exchange that took place between England and Burma during occupation. In 1952 Gaing was sent to London for a year, where he copied Burmese antiquities at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Gaing became known as 'All-Around Ngwe Gaing' for he was a master of pen-work and pencil drawing, watercolour, gouache and oil, and painted in many genres, with a particular interest in depicting ordinary people. He travelled widely in Burma to find subjects, making sketches that he would later paint in oils or watercolours, often scenes of the daily life of ordinary people and particularly portraits of Burma's many ethnic peoples. He was much sought-after as a teacher, with painters packed inside his studio to watch him work.