Album of Genre Paintings by Sin Yun-bok

An album of some thirty genre paintings by Hyewon Sin Yun-bok (1758–?), a painter of late Joseon, including Dano Festival and Lovers under the Moon; each leaf is 28 cm wide and 35 cm high. Sin Yun-bok, who followed his father Sin Han-pyeong for a time as a court painter of the Dohwaseo, also left landscapes notable for their fresh colour, but it is in genre painting that he reached a realm of his own. The album deals chiefly with the love and romance between men and women, above all idle gentlemen and courtesans, and with the pleasures of aristocratic society. Its thin, delicate, soft lines and beautiful colour convey a refined, romantic atmosphere. The figures have slender faces and upturned eyes, which gives them a somewhat sensual feel, and the backgrounds are rendered realistically to set off the mood of the figures. Most leaves carry a short inscription and seal, but none is dated, so the development of his style cannot be traced. The album had gone to Japan; Jeon Hyeong-pil bought it in 1930, had it remounted, and O Se-chang wrote a colophon. It is valued not only as art but as a view of society in the late eighteenth century, precious for the history of daily life and of dress.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Seongbuk-gu, Seoul

Designation

National Treasure · 국보