Portrait of Im Jang

Im Jang (1568–1619) was a civil official of the mid-Joseon period whose clan seat was Pungcheon and whose courtesy name was Ja-ryong. The portrait shows the typical form of an early seventeenth-century meritorious-subject portrait: wearing an official robe with hands folded, he sits in a chair in a three-quarter left profile, on a floor spread with a brightly patterned felt rug, his two feet spread outward on a mat-covered wooden footstool. The painter has raised the outer corner of the left eye so that the two eyes differ slightly in shape, and has varied the length and direction of the sparse beard hairs, sometimes short and sometimes a little longer, capturing the texture of real facial hair — details that strongly suggest the artist worked directly from life. A rank badge showing a white pheasant is attached to the black robe, and a silver belt is worn at the waist. The outer contours of the robe are drawn in thick black lines, and the folds, too, are indicated only by black line drawing with representative creases, without any wash shading. The Annals of King Injo, in the entry for the second day of the ninth month, 1623, the first year of King Injo's reign, together with the royal edict conferring merit-subject status on the suppressors of the Iksa rebellion, record that Im Jang was enrolled as a third-class Iksa Merit Subject; the style and iconography of the painting suggest that this is the merit-subject portrait he received at that time. Dimensions (height x width): 167.8 x 103.2 cm (painted surface).

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Where it is

Region

Seodaemun-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물