2000.232: Bamboo through the Four Seasons

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2000.232

People

Yu Tŏk-chang (also known as Su-un and Ka-san-ŭng), Korean (1675 - 1756)

Title

Bamboo through the Four Seasons

Other Titles

Alternate Title: Ink Bamboo (Mukjuk-to)

Classification

Paintings

Work Type

screen, painting

Date

mid 18th century

Places

Creation Place: East Asia, Korea

Period

Chosŏn dynasty, 1392-1910

Culture

Korean

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/182175

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Eight-panel folding screen; ink on paper; with two seals of the artist reading "Su-un" and "Ka-san-ŭng"

Dimensions

Overall mounting: H. 165 x W. 513.2 cm (64 15/16 x 202 1/16 in.)
paintings proper: H. 81.4 x W. 48.8 cm (32 1/16 x 19 3/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

[Kang Collection, New York (2000)] sold; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2000.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Edition

#064

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Ernest B. and Helen Pratt Dane Fund for Asian Art and Richard Norton Memorial Fund

Accession Year

2000

Object Number

2000.232

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

Korean folding screens often have six panels, like those painted in Japan; more characteristically, however, Korean screens boast eight, ten, or even twelve panels. In some cases, a Korean screen may feature a single, unified composition that spreads across all its panels; in other instances--such as this one--each panel is conceived as an individual painting.

Representing bamboo through the four seasons, this eight-panel screen is meant to be "read" by the viewer from right to left. The first two paintings, at the far right, depict newly sprung shoots and fresh stalks of bamboo emerging from the ground in spring. The next pair of images display lush, hearty stalks of bamboo enduring the strong winds and warm sun of summer. The relative sparseness, dry ink tones, and overlapping mist visible in the next two paintings convey characteristics of the autumn months. The last pair of images, at the far left, which depict old, thick, broken stalks of bamboo with hints of new stalks in one painting and bamboo branches heavily laden with snow in the other, complete the cycle with the winter season. Though the paintings lack inscriptions and signatures, two red, square seal impressions at the upper left corner of the far--left panel identify two sobriquets of the artist Yu Tŏk-chang (1675-1765) and thus reveal the creator of this masterful work of art.

A follower of the famous Korean bamboo-painting master Yi Chŏng (1541-1622), Yu Tŏk-chang was one of the most prominent literati artists of the Chosŏn dynasty (1392-1910). Like their Koryŏ-dynasty (918-1392) predecessors, both Yi and Yu took inspiration from the work of Chinese literati painters of the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1279-1368) dynasties. Their paintings thus tend to resemble literati paintings by early Chinese masters, rather than works produced by their Chinese contemporaries. In this screen, however, Yu departs from the Chinese model and exhibits the distinctly Korean style of bamboo painting he learned from Yi Chŏng: the two tones of ink used to starkly distinguish fore-and background subjects; the angular mists that abruptly interrupt a scene; and the thick stumps of bamboo with sharp, broken edges.

Bamboo painting was extremely popular among the literati, perhaps because of its association with the so-called Four Gentlemen--plum blossoms, orchids, chrysanthemums, and bamboo. All four of these botanical subjects, which readily lend themselves to depiction with calligraphic brushwork, are said to embody the virtues to which Confucian scholars aspired, such as integrity, purity, and strength in the face of adversity. So important was the ability to paint bamboo that in the fifteenth century it outranked even landscape painting in the official examinations for Korea's royal painting academy.

Publication History

• Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 109

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
• A Compelling Legacy: Masterworks of East Asian Painting, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/24/2004 - 03/20/2005
• Cultivating Virtue: Botanical Motifs and Symbols in East Asian Art, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/08/2006 - 04/08/2007
• Re-View: S228-230 Arts of Asia, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 05/31/2008 - 06/01/2013
• 32Q: 2600 East Asian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/04/2015 - 11/29/2015

Subjects and Contexts

• Collection Highlights

Verification Level