Portrait of Kang Se-hwang

The Portrait of Kang Se-hwang comprises two paintings: a self-portrait that Kang Se-hwang, a leading literati painter and calligrapher of the late Joseon period, made of himself, and another portrait of him said to have been painted by Yi Myeong-gi. The self-portrait measures 51 cm wide by 88.7 cm high, and the other portrait measures 94 cm wide by 145.5 cm high; both are painted in colour on silk. Kang Se-hwang (1713–1791) excelled not only in poetry and calligraphy but also in painting, and developed his own distinctive style. In the self-portrait he wears a black official's hat and a robe of deep jade colour, while in the portrait attributed to Yi Myeong-gi he wears official dress and an official's hat. Both paintings show the face at the same angle, the gaze turned to the right, and depict the full seated figure in a chair. In rendering the face, the wrinkles are built up with layered colour to define their contours, and the hollows are shaded to suggest volume. The self-portrait depicts Kang Se-hwang at the age of seventy-one; the other painting, though it shows him in different dress, is the work of Yi Myeong-gi, who excelled at portraiture. Depicting even the shape of the finger joints was almost unheard of in portraits up to the first half of the Joseon dynasty, and represents, in terms of the history of painting, a meaningful advance.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물