Lee Man Fong (1913–1988) was born in Guangzhou, China. He moved to Singapore at a young age and later settled in Indonesia, so he is often associated with both Singaporean and Indonesian art history. In his early years, he worked in advertising design in Singapore before moving to Jakarta at the age of 19. In 1946, he went to the Netherlands to study art. He became an Indonesian citizen in 1960 and was highly appreciated by President Sukarno, who regarded him as an important artist. In 1967, Lee returned to Singapore, and he later passed away in Indonesia in 1988.

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Lee Man Fong was skilled in both Chinese and Western painting techniques. His subjects were diverse, including figures, scenes of Southeast Asian life, animals, and plants. Although he received European art training, he did not simply follow Western artistic styles. Instead, through his observation of life and nature in Southeast Asia, he developed a distinctive personal style that combined Eastern and Western artistic traditions.