Birds and Flowers
Yang Gi-hun (Seuk-eun)
Asian Art
MEDIUM
Folding screen, ink on paper
DATES
19th century
DYNASTY
Joseon dynasty
DIMENSIONS
Each painting: 44 1/8 × 12 3/16 in. (112 × 31 cm)
Overall, flat: 79 1/8 × 175 9/16 in. (201 × 446 cm)
(show scale)
INSCRIPTIONS
Lengthy inscriptions to be read; signed and sealed by the artist.
ACCESSION NUMBER
2020.18.14
CREDIT LINE
Gift of the Carroll Family Collection
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
Ten-panel folding screen depicting birds, plants, and rocks in ten separate (non-continuous) compositions. Each panel bears an inscription in Korean (Chinese characters) with one or two seals of the artist. Reading from right to left the panels are as follows:
1) large rock formation emerging from the right side of the composition, with peony plant above and a budding branch below; two-line inscription and two seals
2) Bamboo stalks emerging from the left to frame a two-line inscription with one seal.
3) Orchids growing from the right with a rock formation below, two line inscription at the upper left with one seal.
4) Banana plant growing in the left side of the composition, rendered in broad strokes, more abstract than several of the other plants; two-line inscription at upper right with one seal.
5) Lotus and grasses emerging from the right with a two-line inscription at the upper left, one seal.
6) Pomegranate or similar fruit growing at upper left, rock formation emerging from bottom left, two-line inscription with one seal at center right
7) Heron or crane walking at lower center with flowering grass above, emerging from right; one-line inscription with one seal at left.
8) bird (to be identified) on a sparsely leafed branch at left, with flowering mum below; three-line inscription at center right with one seal.
9) Pair of geese: one diving from the upper left and the other at lower center looking up; Flowering grasses growing from right, two line inscription at upper right with one seal.
10) Flowering plum growing from lower center, cut off by left margin and then reemerging at left; bird (to be identified) flying downward from upper center, three-line inscription with two seals at right.
The screen is mounted with brown brocaded silks.
Yang Gi-hun served in Pyeongyang and then in Seoul as principle secretary of the third rank, in a role equivalent to that of Minister of Culture. He was the first Korean to complete an education at the Japanese academy of painting (Meiji Bijutsu Gakko). He is said to have been a member of the first Korean diplomatic mission to the United States. As an artist, he is best known for his bird-and-plant compositions. He was of the Chungwha Yang lineage.
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Yang Gi-hun (Seuk-eun) (Korean, 1843 – 1919). Birds and Flowers, 19th century. Folding screen, ink on paper, Each painting: 44 1/8 × 12 3/16 in. (112 × 31 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Carroll Family Collection, 2020.18.14 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.2020.18.14_overall.jpg)
IMAGE
overall,
CUR.2020.18.14_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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