Yee Bon was born in 1905 in Taishan County, Guangdong province. He went to Canada on a work-study program in 1918. In 1931 he entered the Art School of Toronto and received a diploma with honors for outstanding achievement in the arts. From 1935 to 1956, he taught painting privately in Hong Kong and exhibited his work in local museums. 
In 1956, Yee Bon returned to China where he worked as a professional artist. His paintings have been collected by numerous museums including: Guangzhou Institute of Fine Arts, the Hong Kong Museum of Art, and the National Art Museum of China, Beijing. In 1995, a major retrospective comprised of over 500 works by Yee Bon was exhibited at the Guangzhou Art Museum and to date, four monographs of his work have been published.
The Sunflower, 1950
Oil on Canvas
30" x 25" (76.2cm x 63.5cm)About this work
Sunflowers have long been popular as subjects for painters. We recall still lifes with sunflowers by Van Gogh and numerous other post-Impressionist painters, all of whom bring their unique sensibilities to interpretations of the colorful and graphic flower. In this still life composition by Yee Bon, the viewer looks down on a vase full of large sunflowers sitting on a table with other objects, none of which can compete with the vibrancy of the floral arrangement. The overall color scheme Yee Bon uses matches the deep yellows and greens of the flowers themselves.
