This monumental oil painting of Boat Quay documents the busy life around the historic Singapore River. Painted in the time of the city’s transformative action to clean the river, Lim commits the river tongkangs and lorries bearing jute sacks of produce to popular memory. Lim has had a personal motivation to paint as much of the city of Singapore before it gave way to development. A prolific painter in Chinese ink, he has succeeded to do this with each painting he has completed. In both his ink and oil works, Lim has often painted from a bird’s eye view, his compositions often follow the panoramic sweep of a street, and in this case, the river.

Paintings by other artists in the Singtel collection with the subject of street scenes include works by Ang Ah Tee, Choo Keng Kwang, Ong Kim Seng, Poh Siew Wah and Tan Choh Tee.