15 Facts About Saya Saung

Saya Saung was an early Burmese watercolorist who adopted the Western style of painting and became famous in Burma for his landscape works.

Saya Saung is less known for his portraits, about seven of which have surfaced in recent years.

The painter who is invariably mentioned as Saya Saung's teacher is Ba Zaw.

Saya Saung received painting instruction of some kind in England but from which academy or teachers is not known.

The art historian Nyan Shein says that Saya Saung became a professional painter by the age of 18, or by about 1916.

Surprisingly, in a handful of compelling moonlit scenes of the Mandalay Palace and moat, Saya Saung's work possesses bright contrasts in coloring, very much unlike Hilder's work.

The above would not account for when Saya Saung encountered Hilder's work and began to use it as a training tool.

One fascinating portion of Saya Saung's oeuvre are his little-known portraits.

Saya Saung lived in Rangoon but spent much of the year in Mandalay, his home.

Saya Saung sold as many as 100 of his watercolor paintings to foreign collectors and was fairly well-off.

Saya Saung's outdoor painting companions were Ngwe Gaing, San Win, Ohn Lwin and Bo Let Ya.

Saya Saung's drinking habits apparently caused his death at the early age of 52 or 53, when he collapsed during a night of alcoholic revelry, dancing with fellow painters.

Saya Saung was married three times and apparently was not a devoted husband.

In Burmese Painting: A Linear and Lateral History, Ranard quotes a conversation with Nyan Shein, the art historian and painting student of Saya Saung, who said that Saya Saung was actually celebrating the news of his appointment as principal the very night he died.

Countless painters in Burma studied under Saya Saung and were influenced directly by him or attempted to mimic his style from a distance.