Dato' Hoessein Enas liked to do portraits of women: Javanese beauties with their diet of Jamu herbal concoction as well as nubile Malay women, Iban and Korean. His roots were in the Indonesian portrait tradition in the vein of Dullah (1919-1996) and his mentor Basuki Abdullah (1915-1993), which he brought over first to Singapore, and then Malaya, when he escaped Dutch persecution in December 1947. Hoessein also liked to paint his family members, from small until adulthood, dressed in fine traditional clothes, and with the evident endearing touches there. He was able to capture the beauty in all its innocence and sophistication, and in the lively eyes. Pioneer artist Dato' Hoessein Enas was accorded a Retrospective by the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, in 1966, 10 years after being granted Malaysian citizenship. The Sultan of Selangor made him a royal painter in May 1990 and conferred the ‘Dato’ title on him in March 1991.  He is best known for his 56 commissioned paintings in the Shell collection called The Malaysians, done in 1956, the same year he founded the Angkatan Pelukis Semenanjung (later SeMalaysia), based on a similar society he formed in Medan, Indonesia. His awards include the Unesco fellowships (1960), the United States fellowship (1969), an Asian Foundation grant (1960) and the Colombo Plan (twice in 1968 and 1976).