Teaching East Asia: Korea Teaching East Asia: Korea | Page 180

Another major distinction between Eastern and Western landscape paintings is the use of the void. The
emphasis of the void can be as important to the painting as the images. The placement of the majority of the
pictorial imagery left of center balances the void right of center to comprise the traditional asymmetrical
composition favored by Chinese, Korean, and Japanese artists. The void contributes to the overall impact of the
painting and was designed to get the viewer to contemplate on nature.
After 1644, the year of the fall of the Ming dynasty, Korean artists wanted to break away from Chinese
influences, seek their own national identity, and depict the beauty of the Korean peninsula. Rather than paint
famous scenes of China or images of nature as imagined, artists created what is known as “true view” or
realistic landscape paintings of the most beautiful places on the Korean peninsula. These landscapes are now
considered to be the high point of Korean artistic achievements of the Joseon dynasty as they reflect the
masterful drawing ability and technique that characterize each scene.
Jeong Seon (1676-1759) is considered the father of the “true-view” landscape painting and, therefore, with the
“Koreanization” of Joseon painting. His numerous paintings of Mount Geumgang, (located in today’s North
Korea) (ex. Fig. 1) made him famous and the preeminent painter of his time at the age of 37. He ultimately
painted 100 images of Mount Geumgang, many of them with compositions similar to this masterpiece.
Jeong Seon painted Mount Geumgang (Mount Diamond) while actually viewing the mountain. He repeatedly
visited this location to paint the seasonally changing contours and colors of this magnificent and revered place
for the Korean people. The painting depicts a total of 12,000 peaks and is his largest. Transforming an actual
scene into an imaginative landscape, Jeong Seon was able to provide a rhythmic vitality to the painting.
The highest peak is in the background, and water flows from it toward a valley which is divided from the left
and right. As a result, the division dramatically contrasts the Geumgang Mountain peaks, drawn like white
crystals in the upper left part of the frame, with the worldly people who have come to experience the
transformative power of nature (shown in dark ink to the lower right along the Danbalryeong Pass). The
painting may reflect the legend that anyone who comes to this mountain pass will lose all attachment to worldly
things.
The high sharp peaks are drawn with vertical lines while the artist used what is called a dotting brush technique
to depict the earthen peaks, making them appear relatively soft and lush. By depicting the twelve thousand
peaks into a circle by using a void throughout the frame, he was able to create an aura that gives the work a
special power.
The painter included the title of the painting, a poem, and his pen name, Gyeomjae, in the upper part of his
painting which dates the painting to
1734 when the artist was 59 years
old.
Fig. 3. Clearing after Rain on Mt.
Inwang, Jeon Seon, 1751, Black ink
on paper, 31.1 x 54.4”Ho-An Art
Museum, Hongin, South Korea
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