Signed upper left “CHEN”.
Georgette Chen’s Still Life with Rambutans is her vision of tropical plenty through the lens of modernism. On the linen surface, the durians, rambutans and mangosteens are rendered with quiet authority — their forms glowing yet grounded. The tone and brushwork modulate these everyday fruits into a study of rhythm and harmony and we see Chen’s love of light as a living thing.
Oil on canvas, the painting is a balance of European training and her deep connection to Southeast Asia. The composition is serene — each object placed with precision yet alive with tactility. Through this control of form and colour, Chen turns the still life into a meditation on impermanence and beauty.
More than a representation, Still Life with Rambutans is a cultural bridge, combining Parisian technique with Singaporean sensibility. In its simplicity lies an emotional resonance — a celebration of the region’s colours and textures seen through the eyes of a cosmopolitan artist who shaped the visual language of modern Asia.
Private Collection, Singapore,
Private Collection, Berlin, Germany,
Acquired from the above in 2016.
Overall good vintage condition with some signs of wear. Craquelure visible in the high-resolution photos. Unframed.
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Georgette Chen was a modernist painter whose still-lifes and portraits were the heart of the Nanyang art movement. She studied in Paris and New York and absorbed the lessons of European post-impressionism and married them with the colours, light and atmosphere of Southeast Asia. Her works, often of tropical fruits, flowers and women in domestic settings, show a quiet balance between Eastern sensibility and Western structure.
Her brushwork is meditative – precise and tender – she believes beauty is in the everyday. Through her subtle palette and devotion to form, she turned the ordinary into cultural identity and personal memory. As artist and teacher, Georgette Chen helped shape the visual language of modern Singapore and left us a body of work that is beautiful, disciplined and clear.
Georgette Chen, a pioneer of Singaporean modernism and the Nanyang style, fused Eastern subjects with Western technique to create vibrant still lifes and lyrical portraits. Her legacy lives on through her art — now celebrated globally and sought after by collectors.
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