Lovers in Art

Korean Art in 1800s

 

 

 

Joseon Dynasty (July 1392 to October 1897)

 

Midnight Rendezvous is included in Shin Yun-bok’s album Transmission of the Spirit of Hyewon (Hyewon jeonsincheop). This collection of 30 paintings, which has been designated National Treasure No. 135, is housed at the Gansong Art Museum.

 

• Shin is known for his depiction of scenes from the everyday life of the upper class, in a refined and elegant style.

• Many of his works represents romantic themes, which had caused controversy among the conservative-minded Joseon society.

• During the Joseon Dynasty, Neo-Confucianism had a strong influence in the country.

• The elite class, or yangban, was expected to lead a life of virtue.

• Therefore, painting served as a means to propagate the virtuous principles of Neo-Confucianism.

• However, Shin’s genre paintings depicted realistic sexual scenes that were severely chastised for being vulgar and obscene.

• On the contrary, Shin Yun-bok wanted to showcase the nobility’s hypocrisy and immoral self – indulgence behavior, with candid sexual portrayals.

• His paintings depicted real – life situations that were refined with disconnected perspective.

• This style of painting gained him popularity.These paintings are called “chunhwa”, the direct translation: “spring painting”.

• Spring is the season when everything blooms and is full of life. It was also frequently used as a metaphor for sexually related matters.

• This is common in China and Japan where sexually themed paintings were popular there than in Korea.