The painted life of faded Korea

Hyewon and genre painting

in Joseon Korea

Once upon a time in Korea women’s beauty was not unveiled but just portrayed in her mysterious sensuality through the hanbok pleats. Once upon a time in Korea lovers met in secret by moonlight. Once upon a time in Korea seasons were welcomed by yangban (양반, 兩班) ruling class members, formed of literary and martial ranks, who drank and listened to music alongside of kisaeng (기생, 妓生), female artists who entertained with music, poems and dance. This time is Joseon Dynasty (1392 – 1910), perhaps the happiest period of Korean history. In Joseon period Korean culture spreads and consolidates through the whole Korean peninsula.

During the last two centuries of Joseon Dynasty genre painting called pungsokhwa or pungsokdo developed and took inspiration from contemporary everyday life. Korean painters keep painting landscapes in Chinese Southern School style (南宗画) also known as “Literati painting” (文人画) and at same time they paint Korean real life. In these genre paintings nature and seasons’ colours are not the only protagonists but men and above all women are main subjects as well. Woman is the emblem of beauty and the symbol of a new artistic feeling. Painter’s hand immortalizes everyday fleeting moments and genre paintings after two centuries show the lively images of springtime conversations under the blossoming trees, images of courtships to the sweet sound of geomungo (거문고 or현금), the traditional Korean zither, images of summertime afternoons games. Life comes into art and painters describe its amusing, melancholic, lonely, love moments like Japanese artists do at the same time in Japan with ukiyo-e (浮世絵).

Shin Yun-bok (신윤복, 申潤福) or Shin Ka-gwon who is better known by his pen name Hyewon (혜원, 蕙園) meaning “a garden full with orchids” is distinguished from the others Korean artists by his elegant and sensual style. We know only few informations about Hyewon’s life: he was born in 1758 and he presumptively died around 1813. He was probably tall and very handsome and he was son and

grandson of famous court painters, according to Far Eastern tradition of artist families. As the story goes he was banned from dohwaseo, the Royal Bureau of Paining of Joseon Dynasty, because his paintings were considered too much sensual and erotic. Actually his works, even the most erotic, are painted in a dainty and elegant way; his paintings are up-to-date and at same time imbued with a slight melancholy, the melancholy of time going by.
Hyewon’s most famous painting is Portrait of a Beauty (미인도, 美人圖), one of Korean art representative icons. In this picture a middle aged woman perhaps a kisaeng is portrayed wearing an hanbok; she slightly glances down and in her eyes there is a shadow of sadness, perhaps of love pangs. No one woman portrait is more introspective than this painting in Korean and Far Eastern art before. Women are main characters of Hyewon’s pictures. Contemporary Korean writer Lee Jeong-myeong got inspired by Hyewon’s artist figure for the female protagonist of his book Painter of the wind written in 2007 adapted into the movie Portrait of a Beauty by Jeon Yoon-soo in 2008. In the book Painter of the wind Hyewon is a female painter instead of a male painter. The poster of the movie Portrait of a Beauty shows the good-looking actress Kim Min-sun as the beauty of Hyewon’s painting.Most of Hyewon’s known works are part of Hyewon pungsokdo (혜원풍속도), an album of 30 signed genre painting pictures. This album was purchased by chance in 1930 by scholar Jeon Hyeopil at an antique store in Osaka, Japan. With the help of journalist Oh Sechang, Jeon Hyeopil managed to piece together again this album which is the 135th National Treasure of South Korea and it is at Seoul’s Gansong Art Museum founded by Jeon Hyeopil himself. Subjects of Hyewon pungsokdo are various and are all inspired by yangban everyday life. Every picture’s scenery in the open air communicates a deep link between nature and people: trees, flowers, seasons, moon are the background of delicate love scenes like in famous painting The lovers under the moon. In this picture and in its similar A secret meeting under the moon and A secret trip at night, night enshrouds human beings’ secrets and it is their adventure mate and their secrets’ confidant; spectators like us feel to spy on a secret scene. In other paintings, like A boat party on the clean river, An amusing day in a spring field or Dancing together the geommu, the traditional sword dance, we can observe Joseon Korea social life’s collective rituals like sipping tea or liquors under autumn leaves or playing traditional games ssangyuk or tuho. Woman is the real protagonist of Hyewon pungsokdo: from red-light district scene of Who will be the hero at the brothel? to the girls enjoying in Dano spring day of A scenery on Dano day such as the two women speaking to each other in the picture Gossiping at the well at night. The men are often almost hidden behind trees or walls eavesdropping on women’s speech; but men can’t enter into female soul’s unknown world. In this artistic conception of woman there are some resemblances between Hyewon and the contemporary Japanese painter Kitagawa Utamaro (喜多川 歌麿, 1753 - 1806) who in some ukiyo-e painted similar subjects like the print Boating on the Sumida River of 1785 or Pleasure-boating on the Sumida River of 1788-90, in which there are men and women on a boat floating on the river by moonlight just like Hyewon’s A boat party on the clean river.
Hyewon was not famous during his lifetime as other Korean contemporary painter Kim Hong-do (김홍도, 金弘道), better known by his pen name Danwon (단원, 檀園) who was one of the most important members of dohwaseo, born in 1745 and died around 1806. Danwon’s known works are the 25 paintings on Korean paper hanji of the album Danwon pungsokdo now at Seoul’s National Museum of Korea, nominated as the 527th National Treasure of South Korea. Unlike Hyewon, painter of yangban, Danwon depicts above all everyday life of sangmin (이성민, 李晟敏) constituted by peasants, fishermen, craftsmen. Labours of agriculture of fishing and of craftsmanship take turns yearly like religious rites, as we can see in painting Plowing a rice field or Threshing rice and in works like Fishing and Weaving a mat. Though Danwon’s common people paintings don’t give the impression of their hard works but of a lively industry and a poetic harmony. Some rest moments are depicted as well for example in Jumak, a Korean

traditional tavern, and in Lunch time in which we see some peasants resting and eating together. Perhaps one of the most representative Danwon’s work is A laundry place where four women are doing the washing near a torrent and are speaking to each other while a man is eavesdropping them with his face hidden by a fan. This scene is very similar to Hyewon’s Gossiping at the well at night but in the painting by Danwon “distance” between man and women is bigger because of class difference and we gather that by looking at man’s gat (갓), the exclusive hat of yangban members.

Yangban and sangmin are depicted together in paintings by Kim Deuk-sin (김득신, 金得臣), the last of the main artists of pungsokhwa, son of the court painter Kim Eungri and member himself of dohwaseo. Kim Deuksin, better known by his pen name Geungjae (긍재, 兢齋), was born in 1754 and died in 1822. In his picture Bansangdo “yangban and sangmin” we observe the encounter on the road of a rich yangban man on horseback with two peasants piously bowing to him. In this scene Korean traditional hats mean very much: the difference between the yangban gat and the sangmin paeraengi (패랭이) stands for the insuperable social wall which strongly separates the two classes. Gat and paeraengi are very different not only in shape but also in

material: gat is made from horsehair and bamboo, paeraengi is made from grass. The painting Paseokdo “breaking serenity” shows an old couple who go after a black and white cat who has took away some food from their house. The scene gives us a slice of life of Korean common people in Joseon period and makes us smile.
For Joseon genre painters sangmin people are depicted often in their funny and grotesque features but also in their human bad and good habits. Pungsokhwa artists paint everyday life of Korea in a lyrical and sensitive way which moves deeply also nowadays viewers and gives us the lost image of a Korea which is no more.

Floriano Terrano