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This image shows black text and a black plant along a shore, with four red stamps spaced throughout the image.

This image shows a black plant growing along a shoreline for three quarters of the image, with black writing in the top left corner and four red stamps placed throughout. The shoreline extends up from the bottom center of the image, with the water on the left side and the sloped bank on the right. The black plant begins halfway up the image and is made of many grass like strands. There are three vertical columns of black text, with the left most being shorter. There are two, red, square shaped stamps under the shortest line of black text, and another in the bottom right corner. There is a red oval stamp at the top center of the image.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2000.345
People
Kim Ŭng-wŏn (also spelled Gim Eung'won; also known as So-ho and Ch'ŏn-ram), Korean (1855 - 1921)
Title
Orchid and Rock
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting, hanging scroll
Date
late 19th-early 20th century
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, Korea
Period
Chosŏn dynasty, 1392-1910
Culture
Korean
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/174842

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Hanging scroll; ink on silk; with artist inscription, signature reading "So-ho," and three seals reading "Kim Ŭng-wŏn in", "So-ho", and "Ch'ŏn-ram"
Dimensions
painting proper: H. 120 x W. 56.9 cm (47 1/4 x 22 3/8 in.)
mounting, including cord and roller ends: H. 191.1 x W. 79.4 cm (75 1/4 x 31 1/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: So-ho; seals: Kim Ŭng-wŏn in, So-ho, Ch'ŏn-ram

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of David Berg, Esq., by exchange
Accession Year
2000
Object Number
2000.345
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description
An important painter and calligrapher of the late Chosŏn period, Kim Ŭng-wŏn is best remembered for his depictions of orchids, which he painted in the manner of the nineteenth-century master Prince Yi Ha-ŭng. (A magnificent screen by Prince Yi Ha-ŭng is featured in this gallery's glass-fronted screen case.) A professor of painting and calligraphy at the Institute of Arts in Seoul, Kim was also one of the founders of the Painting and Calligraphy Association, established in 1918.

The orchid, a symbol of loyalty and personal integrity, held a fascination for literati painters, since its grasslike leaves and delicate, simple flowers lent themselves to depiction with calligraphic brushwork. Chinese artists had begun to paint the orchid during the Song dynasty (960-1279), the subject becoming ever more popular in the succeeding Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. By the eighteenth century, the taste for paintings of orchids had spread to Korea, where these works enjoyed considerable vogue in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Chinese and Korean artists typically paired orchids and rocks, the orchids coaxing the artist to employ his most delicate, curvilinear brushwork, the rocks tempting him to present his most forceful and expressionistic brushwork. The inscription on this painting translates as:

While sitting quietly, I sense a subtle fragrance.
Such subtlety exists only between reality and imagination.
--So-ho

Exhibition History

  • Plum, Orchid, Chrysanthemum, and Bamboo: Botanical Motifs and Symbols in East Asian Painting, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 07/06/2002 - 01/05/2003
  • Rocks, Mountains, Landscapes and Gardens: The Essence of East Asian Painting ('04), Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 01/31/2004 - 08/01/2004
  • Cultivating Virtue: Botanical Motifs and Symbols in East Asian Art, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/08/2006 - 04/08/2007
  • 32Q: 2600 East Asian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/04/2015 - 11/29/2015

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu