Portrait of Yi Je-hyeon

A portrait of Ikjae Yi Je-hyeon (1287–1367), a scholar-official of late Goryeo. At the Hall of Ten Thousand Books in Yuan China, Yi Je-hyeon associated with Zhao Mengfu and others, introduced new learning and thought to Goryeo, and played an important part in spreading and developing Neo-Confucianism. His pen names were Ikjae and Yeogong, and he left the Guksa (national history) and the Yeogong paeseol among other writings. It is 93 cm wide and 177.3 cm high, painted in colour on silk, showing him seated in a chair. Above are a eulogy by the Yuan writer Tang Binglong and a note by Yi himself recording his feelings on seeing again, after thirty-three years, this painting he had thought lost. Where most portraits face right, he faces left. He wears a white hemp robe bordered in silk, his hands clasped inside his sleeves. A table with a few books stands behind him to his left, and the arm of the chair appears in front to his right, so that his seat looks stable and the composition is well knit. The colours were laid first and the outlines of face and robe then redrawn in line, varied in places, which makes it soft rather than sharp. The colour seems to have changed with the years but gives a calm feeling. It was painted by Chen Jianru, the finest painter of the day, when Yi went to Yuan with the king in 1319, the sixth year of King Chungsuk. Where most surviving Goryeo portraits are later copies, this is an original, and with the half-length portrait of An Hyang one of the only two original Goryeo portraits that survive. It is full-length and well preserved. The use of line for face and clothes is like other Goryeo portraits; where Joseon portraits face right on a blank ground, its close-knit composition and leftward gaze give a glimpse of Goryeo portraiture. Though painted by a Yuan painter, its stable composition and outstanding portrayal of the sitter give it a very important place in the history of Korean art. Four portraits of Yi Je-hyeon in the same style survive, and this is the finest of them.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Designation

National Treasure · 국보