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Lot Essay
Hunting customs were vigorously maintained and practiced in China during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) to reinforce the Manchu ethnic identity of the Qing imperial family; moreover, the imperial hunt at Mukden, the Manchu homeland, was conducted as an annual rite in which the emperor participated. Artists at the Qing court produced documentary paintings to commemorate the hunts, including those in which the emperor participated; such Chinese images likely played a key role as pictorial sources for the hunting scenes painted in Korea late in the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910).
Paintings of the hunt gained renewed popularity in eighteenth-century Korea as prejudice against the culture of China’s Qing dynasty declined and curiosity toward foreign customs and ethnicities increased, thanks to diplomatic exchanges between China and Korea in the late Joseon era. In fact, despite Korea’s strained relationship with the Mongols during China’s Mongol Yuan dynasty (1279–1368), and occasionally with the Manchus during China’s Manchu Qing dynasty, Koreans maintained great admiration for both the Mongols’ and the Manchus’ superb hunting and equestrian skills.
Extant Korean hunting screens virtually all date from the late eighteenth century onward (though a few scroll paintings of the hunt date from earlier periods). It is widely held that Kim Hongdo (1745–c. 1806 or later) revived Korean interest in such paintings and that most Korean paintings of the hunt derive from the few hunting scenes that he painted. The earliest Joseon paintings of the hunt likely were produced for members of the royal family and high-ranking court officials. Such paintings later became popular among military officers as an emblem of martial spirit and military prowess. As hunting screens gained a broader audience in the nineteenth century, folk paintings on the theme were produced in abundance for the masses. In fact, most early nineteenth-century hunting screens exhibit such characteristics of folk art as naïve treatment of motifs, addition of auspicious symbols, and spontaneous, sometimes whimsical, brushwork.
Paintings of the hunt gained renewed popularity in eighteenth-century Korea as prejudice against the culture of China’s Qing dynasty declined and curiosity toward foreign customs and ethnicities increased, thanks to diplomatic exchanges between China and Korea in the late Joseon era. In fact, despite Korea’s strained relationship with the Mongols during China’s Mongol Yuan dynasty (1279–1368), and occasionally with the Manchus during China’s Manchu Qing dynasty, Koreans maintained great admiration for both the Mongols’ and the Manchus’ superb hunting and equestrian skills.
Extant Korean hunting screens virtually all date from the late eighteenth century onward (though a few scroll paintings of the hunt date from earlier periods). It is widely held that Kim Hongdo (1745–c. 1806 or later) revived Korean interest in such paintings and that most Korean paintings of the hunt derive from the few hunting scenes that he painted. The earliest Joseon paintings of the hunt likely were produced for members of the royal family and high-ranking court officials. Such paintings later became popular among military officers as an emblem of martial spirit and military prowess. As hunting screens gained a broader audience in the nineteenth century, folk paintings on the theme were produced in abundance for the masses. In fact, most early nineteenth-century hunting screens exhibit such characteristics of folk art as naïve treatment of motifs, addition of auspicious symbols, and spontaneous, sometimes whimsical, brushwork.
