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Grape Vine

Yi Gye-ho (Hyu-ong)

Asian Art

MEDIUM Folding screen, ink on paper
  • Place Made: Korea
  • DATES early 17th century
    DYNASTY Joseon dynasty
    DIMENSIONS Image only: 25 13/16 × 140 9/16 in. (65.5 × 357 cm) Overall, flat: 42 1/8 × 146 7/16 in. (107 × 372 cm)  (show scale)
    SIGNATURE Signed and sealed by the artist on the second panel from the right.
    COLLECTIONS Asian Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 2020.18.11
    CREDIT LINE Gift of the Carroll Family Collection
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Eight-panel folding screen with a continuous composition of a looping and scrolling grape vine. The stem of the vine is rendered in dark black ink in long, wet strokes. Some of the grapes are also painted in dark black ink, offering a staccato counterpoint to the linearity of the vine. Leaves, tendrils, and some grapes are rendered in a lighter ink with a more sepia tone. The vine begins at the top left corner of the third panel from the left, loops around from below to fill the left-most panels, crosses over itself and then meanders up and down over the third, fourth, and fifth panels, getting thinner as it moves toward the right. On the sixth panel it loops over itself again, then curves up on the seventh panel to end pointing downward on the eighth. The artist's signature and seal appear on the second panel from the right. Yi Gye-ho (formerly transliterated Yi Kay-ho, pen name Hyu-ong) was a celebrated painter of grapes, a popular motif in Joseon-dynasty painting. If each century had its grape-vine expert, Yi Gye-ho served that role for the 17th century. Grapevines were popular for their connotations of abundance, prosperity, and repose. There is speculation that the lighter ink in this example may actually be grape juice. This is the only known example of Yi Gye-ho's work outside of Korea.
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Yi Gye-ho (Hyu-ong) (Korean, 1574–1646). Grape Vine, early 17th century. Folding screen, ink on paper, Image only: 25 13/16 × 140 9/16 in. (65.5 × 357 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Carroll Family Collection, 2020.18.11 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.2020.18.11_overall.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, CUR.2020.18.11_overall.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2020
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
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