Gimhongdo Pil Masangcheongaengdo

Basic information

Designation

Treasure No.1970

Category

Painting

Era

18세기 말～19세기 초

Designated year

2018

Location

성북구, 서울특별시— 서울특별시 성북구 성북로 102-11 (성북동, 간송미술관)

Coordinates

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

A Traveler on Horseback Listening to the Birds Singing” (Masang Cheongaengdo) is a fine work of genre painting produced by Kim Hong-do (1745-after 1806), who is generally regarded as the greatest painter of genre art of the late Joseon period. The painting depicts an aristocratic Confucian scholar on horseback accompanied by a page boy, stopped talking to listen a pair of black-nape orioles merrily chirping on a willow tree, both turning their heads towards the source of the singing. The delicately fine lines used to depict the human figures, the gentle brush strokes used to capture the horse and trappings, the scholar’s facial expression, and the spatial depth all come together in great harmony, effectively rendering the painter’s artistic predilection for everyday scenes of Korean people. It is a work full of lyricism and a powerful presentation of the communion between man and nature. This painting is widely admired not just because it is a representative example of Kim Hong-do’s genre art but also because it contains a poem written by one of his contemporaries, Yi In-mun (1745-1824), providing tangible evidence of the strong friendship between the two artists. For some art historians, the painting presents the most idyllic scene ever depicted by any Korean artist of the Joseon period.