As part of the pioneering group of the second-generation artists in Singapore, Koeh Sia Yong is known for a diverse range of subjects portraying the landscape and culture of Southeast Asia. His work is characterised by realistic and expressive approaches, featuring themes such as Balinese dancers, streetscapes, and flowers. In this eye-catching work, the artist used an interplay of brushstrokes which successfully captures the pose and expression of the sitter filled with beautiful colours and emotion. Koeh Sia Yong is one of the few surviving stalwarts of Singapore’s cult Equator Art Society (formerly Chinese Research Society) which had a huge impact with its Social Realism narratives, and Koeh particularly for Persecution (1963) and murals for the Sentosa Wax Museum on the atrocities of the Japanese Occupation. He graduated from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, specialising in Western Painting in 1958, and worked as graphic designer, illustrator, newspaper cartoonist and movie billboard painter for Shaw Brothers. He is also known for his dossier on the Bukit Ho Swee squatter settlement fire (May 25, 1961).