Rangoon Harbour

In this oil painting, the artist brings together two landmarks in Burma: Rangoon Harbour and Shwedagon pagoda. While both were common subjects in earlier paintings, they tended to be depicted separately. Their juxtaposition effectively captures the sharp contrast between the old and the new, providing a vivid illustration of the casual mingling of ancient and modern influences in 1930s Rangoon. This apparent contradiction is also visible in the different boats in the harbour. They range from a large steamship on the left of the painting, suggesting the largely European-led advancements in industrial processes in Burma, to the pre-colonial fishing boats in the foreground. U Ba Nyan’s work is also remarkable for his unique synthesis of various painting techniques. In this work, he combines the atmospheric effects of watercolour painting (which he studied extensively in England) with bold, thickly applied colours more often associated with oil painting.