Artist: Kim Jun-Geun, Known Kisan
Date: 1800
Size: 5 x 56 cm
Museum: Museu do Oriente (Lisbon, Portugal)
Technique: Watercolour
Depiction of a traditional Korean wrestling match (ssi-reum-ha-neun-mo-yang). Ssireumhanrunmoyang means to be struggling (ssireumhada, to struggle; ssireum, struggle, moyang, appearance, attitude, action). A loose circle of men watch two wrestlers facing off in the centre of the composition. Besides the colourful red, olive green and blue palette that enriches the watercolour, also of note are certain cultural particularities such as the fan (used by men), the kind of hat most are wearing - in contrast to the straw boater of the jury member who seems to be counting on an abacus the rounds won by each opponent - and the manifestly enthusiastic attention and chatter going on between spectators.Carla Alferes Pinto in the Catalogue Portuguese Presence in Asia, Museu do Oriente, p. 440-442 The artist Kim Jun-geun was a Korean Christian painter who worked during the last two decades of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Having adopted the artistic name Kisan, he was best known for over three hundred watercolours depicting local folklore and customs, and in 1892 for illustrating the Korean translation of John Bunyan
Artist |
|
|---|---|
Download |
