Collection: Korean Joseon

Korean Joseon Painting covers the visual culture produced under the Joseon dynasty, which ruled Korea from 1392 to 1897. The period sustained a Confucian court culture that valued painting and calligraphy as adjacent disciplines. The royal Dohwaseo academy produced portraiture, documentary uigwe court ceremony albums, and formal birds and flowers, while a parallel scholar amateur tradition pursued landscape and ink bamboo. Sin Saimdang (1504–1551), one of the few Joseon women whose work survives in number, painted finely observed insects, flowers, and grasses in the early period.

An Gyeon, working in the mid fifteenth century, produced Dream Journey to the Peach Blossom Land (1447) for Prince Anpyeong, the period's defining early landscape. Jeong Seon (1676–1759) developed the True View landscape, jingyeong, applying Chinese ink technique to specifically Korean topography, particularly the Diamond Mountains. Sim Sa-jeong (1707–1769) extended the True View programme. Kim Hong-do (1745–1806), known by the name Danwon, produced the period's most enduring genre paintings of farmers, scholars, dancers, and travellers, while his younger contemporary Sin Yun-bok (1758–1813), known as Hyewon, specialised in the courtesan subjects of the Joseon urban quarter. Jang Seung-eop (1843–1897), known as Owon, closed the dynasty in saturated colour. Folk painting, minhwa, supplied a parallel popular tradition for non-aristocratic households.