Portraits of Chae Je-gong

This is a portrait of Chae Je-gong, a scholar-official of the late Joseon period who was a key figure in carrying out King Jeongjo's policy of impartial appointment while faithfully upholding his own faction's positions, including the restoration of the honour of Crown Prince Sado. The Sibok-bon (everyday court-dress version, painted in 1792) held by Suwon City shows Chae Je-gong at the age of seventy-three: a full-length seated portrait in which he sits comfortably on a flower-patterned rush mat, wearing a light-pink official robe with a samo cap (a black gauze official's cap) and a gwandae belt, and holding a folding fan fitted with a seonchu, a decorative pendant. In the upper right is an inscription noting that, following the completion of the royal portrait in the fifteenth year of His Majesty's reign, sinhae (1791), a copy was made by royal command and brought into the palace, and that with the remaining copy this portrait was mounted the following year, imja (1792); below this is recorded that the painter was Yi Myeong-gi. Next to this, in the upper right, is an inscription composed by Chae Je-gong himself. As the inscription suggests, the portrait appears to have been staged with the sitter holding the fan in both hands, seemingly to commemorate its receipt as a gift from King Jeongjo. Three oil-paper preparatory sketches, also held by Suwon City, are likewise important material, and a fragrance pouch survives alongside the portrait. Dimensions (height x width): Sibok-bon, 120 x 79.8 cm (painting), 173 x 90 cm (overall); Sketch 1, 65.5 x 50.6–8 cm; Sketch 2, 71.5 x 47.5 cm; Sketch 3, 72.5 x 47.2 cm.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Suwon, Gyeonggi

Designation

Treasure · 보물