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Lot Essay
This trompe l'oeil still life painting shows off a Confucian scholar's collection displayed on a bookcase or curio cabinet rendered in a startling mixture of Eastern and Western systems of perspective. Each panel of the painting is self-sufficient but fully packed with endlessly fascinating and entertaining detail. Some of the shelves are composed of three tiers, some of four. The effect is bold and decorative, a uniquely powerful expression of Korean culture.
These are the rare and luxurious objects a wealthy Joseon-period scholar wanted to have nearby in his study. Western techniques of linear perspective and modeling create the illusion of space, mass and volume. Narrow shelves are stacked with books and treasures of varying size and shape, ancient bronzes for the rituals of ancestor worship, porcelain flower vases--some of them expensive Chinese imports--a Chinese-style table, bowls and dishes, a metal vase holding peacock feathers and coral branch, and a bowl of fruit. Most important are the "four treasures of the scholar's studio," namely rolled scrolls of by in his study.rushes, an ink stone and ink sticks. One set of books appears to be in use--its wrapper is open and askew. Some brushes are darkened with ink from use.
There is literary evidence for the tradition of chaekgori ("books and things") from at the least the late eighteenth century. Screens of this subject became an extremely popular status symbol after King Jeongjo (r. 1776-1800) placed one behind his desk in the men's quarters of the palace. Every gentry household followed suit.
Growing demand led the most prominent of the professional court painters to take up this genre--Gim Hongdo (1745-before 1818) in the eighteenth century and Yi Yunmin (1774-1841) and Yi Hyeong-nok (1808-after 1874) in the nineteenth. Recent scholarship has turned up four mid-nineteenth-century trompe l'oeil chaekgori screens bearing the seal of Yi Hyeongnok (one in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco) and a fifth by his follower Kang Talsu (act. ca. 1875-1900). Remarkably, no two display cabinets in this type of screen are alike. Kang uses a striking cobalt-blue background, as seen in the screen offered here. The rich cobalt blue is a fresh departure for this genre of court screen. It is typical of the artist's work that there is no central focus--the eye moves vertically as well as horizontally across the screen.
For a full discussion of chaekgori screens, see Kay E. Black and Edward W. Wagner, "Court Style Ch'aekkori," Hopes and Aspirations: Decorative Painting of Korea, exh. cat. (San Francisco: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 1998): 21-35; also Black and Wagner, "Ch'aekkori Paintings: A Korean Jigsaw Puzzle," Archives of Asian Art 46 (1993): 63-75; Keumja Paik Kim, The Art of Korea: Highlights from the Collection of San Francisco's Museum of Asian Art (San Francisco: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 2006). For a chaekkori screen by Yi Hyeongnok in the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, see Hongnam Kim, ed., Korean Arts of the Eighteenth Century: Splendor & Simplicity, exh. cat. (New York: The Asia Society Galleries, 1993), pl. 32.
These are the rare and luxurious objects a wealthy Joseon-period scholar wanted to have nearby in his study. Western techniques of linear perspective and modeling create the illusion of space, mass and volume. Narrow shelves are stacked with books and treasures of varying size and shape, ancient bronzes for the rituals of ancestor worship, porcelain flower vases--some of them expensive Chinese imports--a Chinese-style table, bowls and dishes, a metal vase holding peacock feathers and coral branch, and a bowl of fruit. Most important are the "four treasures of the scholar's studio," namely rolled scrolls of by in his study.rushes, an ink stone and ink sticks. One set of books appears to be in use--its wrapper is open and askew. Some brushes are darkened with ink from use.
There is literary evidence for the tradition of chaekgori ("books and things") from at the least the late eighteenth century. Screens of this subject became an extremely popular status symbol after King Jeongjo (r. 1776-1800) placed one behind his desk in the men's quarters of the palace. Every gentry household followed suit.
Growing demand led the most prominent of the professional court painters to take up this genre--Gim Hongdo (1745-before 1818) in the eighteenth century and Yi Yunmin (1774-1841) and Yi Hyeong-nok (1808-after 1874) in the nineteenth. Recent scholarship has turned up four mid-nineteenth-century trompe l'oeil chaekgori screens bearing the seal of Yi Hyeongnok (one in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco) and a fifth by his follower Kang Talsu (act. ca. 1875-1900). Remarkably, no two display cabinets in this type of screen are alike. Kang uses a striking cobalt-blue background, as seen in the screen offered here. The rich cobalt blue is a fresh departure for this genre of court screen. It is typical of the artist's work that there is no central focus--the eye moves vertically as well as horizontally across the screen.
For a full discussion of chaekgori screens, see Kay E. Black and Edward W. Wagner, "Court Style Ch'aekkori," Hopes and Aspirations: Decorative Painting of Korea, exh. cat. (San Francisco: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 1998): 21-35; also Black and Wagner, "Ch'aekkori Paintings: A Korean Jigsaw Puzzle," Archives of Asian Art 46 (1993): 63-75; Keumja Paik Kim, The Art of Korea: Highlights from the Collection of San Francisco's Museum of Asian Art (San Francisco: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 2006). For a chaekkori screen by Yi Hyeongnok in the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, see Hongnam Kim, ed., Korean Arts of the Eighteenth Century: Splendor & Simplicity, exh. cat. (New York: The Asia Society Galleries, 1993), pl. 32.