Artist:Yang Gi-hun (Seuk-eun)
Medium: Folding screen, ink on paper
Geograhical Locations:
Dates:19th century
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)
Collections:
Accession Number: 2020.18.14
Image: CUR.2020.18.14_overall.jpg,
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.