Gimhongdo Pil Seowonajipdo Folding Screen

Basic information

Designation

Treasure No.2260

Category

Painting

Era

1778년(조선 정조 2)

Designated year

2024

Location

용산구, 서울특별시— 서울특별시 용산구 서빙고로 137 (용산동6가, 국립중앙박물관)

Coordinates

No precise coordinates are available, so this item is not shown as a map marker. To be added later.

This English description was machine-translated and may contain inaccuracies. Refer to the original Korean text for details.

The 'Kim Hong-do's Painting of the Western Garden Gathering on a Six-Panel Screen' created in 1778 (King Jeongjo 2) by Kim Hong-do depicts the 'Western Garden Gathering' (西園雅集), a cultural and literary gathering that took place around 1087 in the Western Garden of Wang Xun (王詵), the imperial son-in-law of Northern Song Emperor Yingzong (reign 1063-1067), in the capital Kaifeng, where prominent literati including Su Shi (蘇軾), Li Gonglin (李公麟), and Mi Fu (米芾) engaged in diverse cultural and artistic activities. While adopting iconography from Ming master painter Qiu Ying's (仇英) work transmitted to Joseon since the 17th century, Kim Hong-do boldly rendered background willows, rock formations, and pines, infusing spatial vitality while incorporating auspicious symbolic elements—deer and cranes—transforming this into a distinctly Joseon interpretation. Comprising six panels, the painting arranges figures including Li Gonglin painting 'Return Journey,' Su Shi composing poems, and Master Yuantong conversing across panels 3-6. The upper sections of panels 5-6 feature fourteen lines of calligraphic inscription by Kim Hong-do's teacher Gang Se-hwang, who, praising Kim Hong-do as possessing 'divine brush' (神筆), provided detailed explanation dated December 1778, three months after the work's September completion, offering invaluable documentary material for understanding Kim Hong-do's artistic world. As a representative work of the refined gathering culture flourishing in late Joseon, the 'Western Garden Gathering Screen' by Kim Hong-do represents an important dated work enabling examination of his 34-year-old artistic style, establishing a new model for subsequently popular Western Garden Gathering screens while holding significant painting-historical value. Particularly through Sinicized and recreated Chinese painting traditions, it exemplifies Joseon period painting history's distinctive character and creativity, representing a crucial reference work demonstrating not only artistic but also historical value.