With the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, China opened its doors to the outside world once again. In 1979, the Society of Chinese Artists in Singapore sent a study group on a tour around China. On this trip, Cheong Soo Pieng, a native of Amoy or Xiamen, returned to China for the first time since his departure to Malaya. It marked a watershed moment in the artist’s career as he started to envision working towards a homecoming exhibition in China. By the lotus pond (Lot 1012), painted only a year after this pivotal trip, is an important work by the Nanyang artist as Cheong sought to create works that would showcase his unique perspective as an émigré Chinese artist.

Significantly, the work was on the cover of Artist Magazine, volume 61, Taipei, Taiwan in June 1980 and lead the feature story of Cheong’s 1980 exhibition at Alpha Art Gallery in Taipei the same year. While the article includes some examples of Cheong’s other late work that illustrated the artist’s ‘Vision of Nanyang’, By the lotus pond was a clear highlight of the solo exhibition. This prestigious coverage marked the artist's success beyond Southeast Asia, and his desire to develop an audience in Taiwan and China. In more recent times, By the Lotus Pond was exhibited at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 2013, and at the Cheong Soo Pieng: A Centenary Celebration in Taiwan in Taipei in 2017.

Depicting two maidens perched by the shore and collecting lotus flowers, the present lot is at once regal and charming. It is an excellent example of Cheong’s iconic stylization and the result of his unmatched artistic versatility and deep studies into Southeast Asian culture. During the last stages of his career, Cheong Soo Pieng developed an iconic figurative style that celebrated the local ethnicities of Malaya, particularly of Bali, in Indonesia, and Sarawak in Borneo. Sitting in silent repose, the two girls are seemingly unaware of their surroundings. Their facial features are highly stylized, and limbs elongated. Wearing a white head scarf typical of the local women, Cheong's main figure tilts her head gently, while an overarching tree branch echoes her posture. She is captured as if mid-thought, deciding whether to pick the beautiful lotus flower from its natural surroundings. Her oval angular face, almond lidded eyes and thin arched eyebrows are signature characteristics of Cheong’s late figuration.

The setting although in nature, is not naturalistic but transformed into patterns and simplified forms. The pointillist treatment of the water, receding sky and ground is reminiscent of Gustav Klimt’s highly sensual works. The staccato brush strokes of gold, brown and green creates an even rhythmic quality throughout the composition, imbuing the work with a meditative quality. The overall compositional flow plays with dimensionality as the viewer’s eye is led by the leaves floating on the water’s surface in the foreground, towards the horizon, stretching to the sky in the background. Lotus flowers have long held strong symbolism in Asian culture and art, representing strength, resilience, and purity. In By the lotus pond, the sense of stillness and calm recalls the reflective works of hermit philosophers in traditional Chinese works, where poets or literati might gather in remote settings or ponder life by isolating deep in nature. In its gentle beauty, By the lotus pond is a poignant work that signified  Cheong Soo Pieng’s confidence as a Chinese artist at a watershed moment in his career as he found an ever-growing audience beyond Southeast Asia. As writer Bridget Tracy Tan comments of his late period figurative paintings:

隨著文化大革命在1976年正式結束，中國亦再一次對世界開放。1979年，新加坡的中華美術研究會組織了一隊遊學團到訪中國，原籍廈門的鍾泗濱正是其中一員，當時是他移居馬來亞後首次回到中國。這趟旅程是他藝術生涯的分水嶺，因為在此之後鍾泗濱便開始計畫在中國舉辦一場展覽。《採蓮》的創作時間是這趟重要旅程的一年後，展示這位南洋藝術家作為華僑的獨特藝術視角。

值得留意的是，本作曾登上台北《藝術家》雜誌1980年6月第61期的封面，該期專題介紹鍾泗濱1980年在台北太極畫廊舉辦的個展。這篇報道展示了鍾泗濱不少晚年的作品，並形容他為「極具遠見的南洋藝術家」，而《採蓮》是那場個展上當之無愧的焦點佳作。鍾泗濱獲這本知名雜誌重點報導，可見他於東南亞以外地區的成功，以及他在中國及台灣發展事業的野心。《採蓮》曾經在2013年南洋藝術學院展出，其後2017年再次展於台北舉行的「鍾泗濱百歲冥誕台灣回顧展」。

本作描繪兩位正在池畔採蓮的妙齡女子，不但完美地呈現了鍾泗濱標誌性的風格，更展現了他無可比擬的藝術技巧，以及他對東南亞文化的深入研究。在他藝術生涯的後期，鍾泗濱發展出一種頗具辨識度的具象風格，向馬來亞的各個民族致敬，特別是印尼的峇里和婆羅洲的砂拉越兩地的族群。本畫中兩位少女安坐地上，似乎不太在意周遭的環境。她們四肢纖細修長，風格化的面容無疑是鍾泗濱的藝術特色。她們穿戴著當地女性身上常見的白色頭巾，其中一位並稍稍側著頭，上方彎曲的樹枝彷似呼應著她的姿勢。她彷彿正在沉思，細想應否採摘池中美麗的蓮花。她的鵝蛋臉輪廓分明，輕閉著的杏眼配以彎彎的細眉，展現出藝術家晚年具象作品的特色。

本作以自然環境為背景，但藝術家並沒有採用自然風格，而是將大自然的不同元素化作圖案和簡約的形態。他以點描式的手法描繪池水、深邃的天空和地面，令人聯想起古斯塔夫．克林姆婉約動人的作品。短促的金色、棕色和綠色的筆觸蘊含著穩定而明確的節奏，為畫作注入冥想般的氣息。此外，構圖注重各種元素之間的比例結構，引導觀者的目光從畫中的葉子伸延到前景的水面上，再向橫推進，延伸至背景的天空。在亞洲各地文化中，蓮花的象徵意義鮮明，通常代表堅韌、不屈和純潔。《採蓮》流露的平和寂靜氣氛，令人聯想起傳統國畫中詩人雅士在人跡罕至的山林裡小聚、或歸隱田園躬身自省的逸士精神。含蓄優美的《採蓮》體現了鍾泗濱作為一位中國藝術家的自信，亦見證他在東南亞以外地區的藝術圈嶄露頭角。作家 Bridget Tracy Tan 曾這樣評價鍾泗濱晚年的具象畫作：