Dongja gyeollyeodo (A Boy Pulling a Donkey) by Kim Si

Dongja gyeollyeodo (A Boy Pulling a Donkey) by Kim Si is a landscape figure painting by the mid-Joseon painter Kim Si (1524-1593), measuring 46 cm wide and 111 cm high, painted in colour on silk with a diagonal composition. Kim Si was the son of Kim An-ro (1481-1537), author of the Yongcheondamjeokgi, and was a scholar-painter who spent his life reading and practising calligraphy and painting. The painting vividly depicts a boy forcibly hauling on the reins of a donkey that is resisting crossing a log bridge. On the left of the composition a pine tree, its branches sharp and angular and its needles pointed, rises from the bottom of the picture to the main peak at the top, filling the empty space of the painting. Behind it, the main peak, rising at a slant, is rendered with an ink technique of strong black-and-white contrast and with axe-cut texture strokes (bubyeokjun), a brushwork resembling the flat surface left by a blow from an axe. The exact date of production is unknown, but the painting is presumed to have been made in the latter half of the sixteenth century. Overall, the composition is weighted to the left by the pine tree and rock, and the depiction of tree and rock shows the characteristics of the Jeolpa school of painting, a style descended from the Chinese Zhe school.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물