Maehwado (Plum Blossoms) by Yu Suk

This is an eight-panel folding screen of red plum blossoms, painted by the late-Joseon painter Yu Suk (1827–1873). Yu Suk was a painter of the Dohwaseo, the state office in charge of painting, and excelled in figure painting, genre painting, and landscape painting. This is his only surviving painting of plum blossoms. Across the whole of the large picture surface, measuring 378 cm wide and 112 cm high, a plum tree with spreading branches is rendered with a skilled brush. In the lower left of this painting — Yu Suk's only depiction of plum blossoms — is an inscription of praise written in his own hand. Painted in the fifth year of Emperor Gojong (1868), this Maehwado is of such high quality that it ranks among the finest examples of the plum-blossom paintings that were popular in the 19th century; because its date of production is certain and it treats a subject Yu Suk rarely painted, it is a precious resource for the study of Joseon-period painting history.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물