Munhyogong and Jeonggyeongbuin Portrait

This is a portrait of Ha Yeon, styled Munhyogong, a civil official of the early Joseon period, and his wife. Ha Yeon passed the civil service examination during the reign of King Taejo of Joseon, and rose through the posts of Right State Councillor and Left State Councillor to become Chief State Councillor in 1449, the 31st year of King Sejong. His collected writings, the Gyeongjaejip, record that his son Ha U-myeong, who was deeply filial and also skilled in painting, once painted portraits of his parents himself. This suggests that the present painting, too, is a copy made after the original painted by Ha U-myeong, and it is of a higher quality than the companion portraits of husband and wife preserved in the shrines of Hapcheon and Cheongwon. The clothing and headwear worn by the wife in the painting are a valuable source for research into the history of women's dress in the early Joseon period. The shape of her cap, open at the top and covering both ears, appears to be the forerunner of the jobawi, the headgear Joseon-period women wore over their hair when going out. Paired portraits of husband and wife seem to have been fashionable in the early Joseon period, and besides that of Ha Yeon and his wife, several other such pairs survive, including those of Bak Yeon and his wife and of Jo Ban and his wife. Given how rare portraits of women became from the mid-Joseon period onward, this pair of portraits is of great significance in the history of painting.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Muju, Jeonbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산