JEONG SEON / 정선 (1676–1759)
Mount Kumgang / The Diamond Mountains (1,638 m - 5,374 ft)
North Corea
In Geumgangjeondo "Overview of Mt. Geumgang in Autumn" or The Diamond Mountains, 1734,
Ink and light colors on paper, 130.7 cm × 94.1 cm, Ho-Am Art Museum, South Korea
About this work
Geumgang jeondo (금강전도 金剛全圖) is a famous landscape painted by Jeong Seon during the reign of King Yeongjo, litteterally means " General view of Mt. Geumgangsan" or The Diamond Mountains). It was classified as the 217th National Treasure of South
Korea on August 6, 1984. The painting is currently held and managed by
the Ho-Am Art Museum in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province and is owned by Lee
Kun-hee. While many contemporaneous painters imitated the latest art
trends from China, Jeong Seon ignored these to create unique themes
based on Korean landscapes. His catalogue of paintings of Geumgansan
made him famous and the preeminent painter of his time at the age of 37.
He eventually painted around 100 images of the mountains which still
exist to this day. The artist’s love of the mountains influenced other
artists to depict the Diamond Mountains and even encouraged mapmakers to
make maps of the area. Although Jeong Seon made many paintings of Mt.
Geumgangsan, this painting is the largest and considered his best. Like
many of his paintings, Jeong Seon painted this landscape while actually
viewing the mountains. The painting is 130.7 centimeters in height and
94.1 centimeters in width. It is painted with India ink. The painting is
of Naegeumgang, the Inner Mt. Geumgangsan. The painting depicts a total
of twelve thousand peaks. The highest peak, Birobong, lies in the
background and water flows from it toward a valley called Manpokdong
which is divided from the left and right. The high sharp peaks are
depicted by the artist with lines painted up and down while the artist
used a dotting brush method to depict the earthen peaks, making them
appear relatively soft and lush. This composition harmonizes the
contrasting sharp edges of the rocky peaks with the softer earthen
peaks.
The mountain
Mount Kumgang / 금강산 (1,638 m - 5,374
ft Geumgangsan,(Diamond Mountain) are a mountain/mountain range, with a
Birobong peak, in Kangwon-do, North Korea. It is about 50 kilometres
(31 mi) from the South Korean city of Sokcho in Gangwon-do. It is one of
the best-known mountains in North Korea. It is located on the east
coast of the country, in Mount Kumgang Tourist Region, formerly part of
Kangwŏn Province. Mount Kumgang is part of the Taebaek mountain range
which runs along the east of the Korean Peninsula.
Koreans have
perceived Kŭmgangsan as their muse since well before the Middle Ages.
Practically every poet and artist who lived during the Joseon dynasty
(1392-1910) made a pilgrimage to Kŭmgangsan. Among other well-known
works, are the Geumgang jeondo and the Pungaknaesan chongramdo, painted
in the 1740s by Jeong Seon. The division of the Korean peninsula in
1950 resulted in the South Korean people finding themselves unable to
visit this beloved mountain for the better part of 50 years. The
155-mile-long (249 km) barbed-wire fence erected as part of the DMZ(
Demilitarized zone) separating the two Koreas proved to be an obstacle
stronger than any other barrier.
In 1894 the British writer Isabella Bird Bishop referred to it in her travelogue as "Diamond Mountain".
Kŭmgangsan is the subject of a popular 1962 South Korean folk song, Longing for Mt. Geumgang. It is also the setting of the 1973 North Korean revolutionary opera The Song of Mount Kumgang.
The
legend of the Sad Korean frog: During the Korean War, the civilian
population had to hide in the mountainous areas to avoid being victims
of the continuous attacks of the armies. In the autumn of 1950, one of
the villages in the area was reportedly razed to the ground by the South
Korean and Allied armies advancing through the area. The attack took
place in the morning and almost all the inhabitants were killed. It is
said that about twenty children managed to escape and fled to the
foothills of the mountain. There they found shelter and stayed there for
several days. When they wanted to return to their village, already
destroyed, they saw that the military had built a logistic base there
and decided to stay in the mountain for a week. They barely had enough
food for everyone and were beginning to starve. When all seemed lost,
with the children so weak that they could barely leave the shelter on
the mountainside, they found a sack with twenty loaves of bread next to
their makeshift beds of leaves at dawn. Thanks to these loaves of bread
and water from the nearby stream, which always arrived at dawn, the
children managed to gather strength and survive. One night, several of
the children stayed awake and saw a small frog carrying the sack with
the loaves of bread. They decided to follow it almost to the top of the
mountain and saw that in one of the many caves there, the frog was
kneading and baking bread every night so that the children would have
food.
Thanks to the Sad Korean frog, as it was called in some
writings because of its sorrowful appearance, the children managed to
live long enough to return to their village. Eventually these children
grew up and went to other villages where they told their story and thus
the Mountain Frog (san-eseo seulpeun gaeguli) became known as the
Mountain Frog.
The painter
Jeong Seon (정선) was a Korean landscape painter, also known by his pen name Kyomjae ("humble study"). His works include ink and oriental water paintings, such as Inwangjesaekdo (1751), Geumgang jeondo, and Ingokjeongsa (1742), as well as numerous "true-view"
landscape paintings on the subject of Korea and the history of its
culture. He is counted among the most famous Korean painters. The
landscape paintings that he produced reflect most of the geographical
features of Korea. The poverty he experienced in his youth made him
pursue his career as a painter. He was proficient at Zhou-I and
astronomy. He worked at the Bureau of Painting creating landscapes for
patrons and clients.
He was discovered by an aristocratic neighbour who recommended him to
the court. He soon gained an official position. Jeong is said to have
painted daily, with a prolific output until old age.
Jeong was the most eminent painter in the late Joseon Dynasty
(1700–1850) and explored the scenic beauty of the capital city of
Hanyang (Seoul), the Han River, the East Sea, and the Diamond Mountain (above).
He is the first painter of true-view Korean landscapes. Differing from
earlier techniques and traditional Chinese styles, he created a new
style of painting depicting the virtues of Korea. It is reported that he
frequently left his studio and painted the world around him, as he
could see it. His paintings are classified as Southern School, but he
developed his own style by realistically portraying natural scenes such
as mountains and streams with bold strokes of his brush.
A major characteristic of his work is intermixed dark and light areas,
created by layers of ink wash and lines. His mountains are punctuated by
forests, which in turn are lightened by mists and waterfalls.
Vegetation is made from dots, a technique that bears the influence of
Chinese painter Mi Fei (1052–1107). Jeong's style would influence
generations of Korean artists, and become one of the iconic images of
Korean nationalism.
2022 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
