Jeonihancheolpil Eohaedo Painting Bottle

Together with fantastically shaped rocks (gwaeseok), fish and crustaceans such as carp, mandarin fish, crucian carp, catfish, flatfish, crab and shrimp are rendered with great realism through fine brushwork and superb gradations of dark and pale ink. Of the ten panels of this folding screen, the outer panel on each side bears a colophon written in seal script, while the painting itself spans the eight inner panels as a continuous composition. Many fish-and-crab paintings (eohaedo) are executed on a single sheet, and it is unusual to find one painted, as here, across the full width of eight continuous panels. Facing the whole expanse of the screen, the painter placed fantastic rocks at the top and at the lower left and right, so that they seem to enfold the fish and crabs, while leaving open space at the upper right to give the composition a bold, unconfined feel. Across this stage swim various fish and shellfish, some spinning in circles, others diving with their fins spread wide; there are also scenes of a small fish following a large one, and of fish seeming to rendezvous with one another, all lending the scene great vitality. The colophon, written in seal script by Kim Tae-seok (pen name Seongjae, 1875-1953) in a gi-yu year (believed to be 1909), states that the painting was done by Yi Han-cheol (1808-after 1893), although no signature or seal of the painter appears on the picture itself. That Kim Tae-seok wrote the colophon is confirmed by the white-ground square seal reading "Taeseokjiin" and the red-ground square seal reading "Seongjae" stamped at its end. Kim Tae-seok, a calligrapher and painter active in the closing years of the Korean Empire, excelled in seal script, clerical script and seal-carving, moved widely among the literati of his day, and was renowned enough to have carved a jade seal for Yuan Shikai while in China and to have served as his adviser on calligraphy; moreover, Yi Han-cheol was still alive until Kim was about twenty. For these reasons, even without a signature or seal, it seems reasonable to regard this work as by Yi Han-cheol. Believed to have been produced around the end of the 19th century, around 1879, the painting is an outstanding work in which subtle contrasts of dark and pale ink, combined with the movements of the fish, create a strong sense of rhythm across the whole composition. As a large-scale work representative of fish-and-crab painting in the late Joseon period, the screen is of considerable size, makes a fine visual impression when displayed, and survives in good condition.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jongno-gu, Seoul

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산