Through the Eyes of Joseon Painters: Real Scenery Landscapes of Korea

By Oh Dayeon, Associate Curator of the Fine Arts Division, National Museum of Korea

Exhibition Period : JULY 23 – SEPTEMBER 22, 2019 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF KOREA

Beautiful natural scenery is something that is sure to catch our attention. People today, upon encountering a breathtaking view, will naturally bring out their cameras, but in the days before photography, they had to resort to the brush to either paint the scene or extol it in verse or prose. Artists were especially prone to reproduce the beautiful spots or famous sights they visited in order to preserve the memory of what they witnessed.

The real scenery landscape painting, in which the artist sought to portray the scene as realistically as possible, existed from the Goryeo Dynasty but was most popular during the eighteenth century in the Joseon Dynasty. Literati artist Kang Sehwang said that landscape was one of the most difficult painting genres, given the vastness of the subject matter; that the real scenery drawing was the most difficult type of landscape to produce; and that the real scenery portrayal of the Korean landscape was the most difficult of all paintings to undertake. If the real scenery landscape painting does not reflect the reality, the differences between the real scene and the painting can not be disguised.

Thus, Joseon painters such as Kang Sehwang fundamentally strove to paint natural views as they looked. Their task was to portray three-dimensional reality on a two-dimensional medium, and they endured much trial and effort while laboring to reproduce the scene as realistically as possible.

The exhibition sheds light on the creative process and the artists’ perspectives and interpretations and consists of four parts. Part 1, “Painting Landscapes as They Are,” introduces the backgrounds and functions of real scenery landscape paintings, which depict the scene realistically, as opposed to the conceptual landscapes, which incorporate idealized elements into the finished work. Joseon painters took advantage of Korea’s unique geomantic concepts as well as various other genres such as paintings of social gatherings of government officials or literati friends, documentary paintings, and pictorial maps.

This part was organized to shed light on why and how specific locations were visualized in works prior to the wide popularity of real scenery landscape painting. On display here, for example, are works from the Album of Nine-bend Stream of Gogun, produced by Jo Segeol in 1682 for Kim Sujeung, who took the painter to his country villa in Gangwondo. The album served as the first step in producing the artist’s own version of the landscape theme made famous by Zhu Xi, Nine Scenic Views in Wuyi Mountain of China. Visitors will also see works from the Album of Geumgangsan Mountain by Jeong Seon produced in 1711. This monumental work had a major effect on subsequent real scenery landscape paintings. Fig.1

Part 2, “The Painters Sketched Those Places,” introduces Joseon painters who traveled to natural settings to sketch. First is Kang Sehwang who wandered around the Byeonsan area, near Buan, Jeollado, where his son had been posted as a government official. He would roughly sketch the scenes on hand scrolls. Next is Kim Hongdo who was ordered by King Jeongjo to makes on-scene sketches in the Gwandong area and the important parts of Geumgangsan Mountain. Finally, there is Jeong Suyeong, who, while roaming with friends, sketched the scene looking down at the Namhangang River. Fig.3

These sketches resulted from the artists’ immediate responses when they beheld the scenes with their own eyes. The images are raw and impart a feeling of realism. In a short time, the artists managed to lay out concisely on paper the key points of the scene while also making certain modifications. The names of colors are also jotted on the cliff faces, and certain events of impressions connected with specific locations were also noted. The artists’ draft sketches are for use in the process of producing the finished work, but the sketches can also be considered artworks themselves.

Part 3, “Trimming the Actual Scene,” presents how the artists would return to their studios from their journey and reconstruct the scenes, based on their rough drafts and memories of what they had seen, to complete their paintings. Visitors will see the methods (projection or spatial perspective techniques) employed by the artists as they strove to recall what they had observed, grasp the relationship between the time of their observation and the composition of the scene, and resolve the issues of perspective or spatial sense. Kim Hongdo labored to paint actual locations as realistically as possible within the range of vision, and amazingly, his works closely resemble the scenes seen through a modern camera lens. Fig.2 In the first half of the nineteenth century, Kim Hajong completed the Album of Sea and Mountains, which reveals his mastery of Western-style perspective techniques and sensational coloring. The realistic scene depicts Chongseokjeong Pavilion viewed at the Hwanseonjeong Pavilion. Fig.4

The last part is “Transcending Real Scenery Landscapes,” introducing works that reveal the subjective and emotional perceptions on the part of the painter. The paintings on display underscore the artist’s analytical skills or the painting techniques and coloration that the artist preferred. Fig.5

The artists would purposely distort shapes in the process of deconstructing and recomposing the scenes. Sometimes they would paint with their fingers or use bold coloring. In such cases, their objective was not so much to represent the actual scene as it was to convey the artist’s personal feelings at the location or to project some special significance that it held for the artist. In the process, the landscape would take on new meaning.

Paintings produced after the artist’s intense agonizing or artistic experimentation still resonate soundly today. The modern viewer can share to some degree the excitement and overflowing emotion felt by the painters at the time they reproduced a scene that caught their eye in their pursuit of creating real scenery landscapes. You are invited to enjoy a brief respite from the hot summer weather and urban way of life by focusing your gaze upon the scenes.