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Datelate 19th century
MediumInk, crayon and chalk on paper, mounted on silk
DimensionsOverall (Each panel): 33 3/8 × 16 3/4 in. (84.8 × 42.5 cm)
Overall (Open): 33 3/8 × 50 1/4 in. (84.8 × 127.6 cm)
Credit LineGift of a Friend of the Emerson Gallery
Object number1993.24
On view
DescriptionThis screen is exemplary of the Korean folk painting tradition and would have decorated a room in hopes that its iconography would bring good luck for the inhabitants. The screen depicts at least two different classifications of folk painting: the left-most panel portrays the harmony that exists between flowers and birds, a type of subject called hwajodo, while the other two panels depict a number of plants and animals that denote long life, a classification called shipchangsaengdo. Korean folk painting was intentionally formulaic. Specific animals and plants are depicted for their symbolic meaning, which would have been clear to those who viewed them. For example, the type of bird that appears on the left-most panel represented goodness, morality, and virtue, and always appears with depictions of the paulownia tree, whereas the imaginary mushroom-like plants that appear at the lower right, called pulloch’o, were considered by Taoists to bestow eternal life (SOURCE: Wellin Museum permanent collection label, Summer 2016).
Collections
Additional Details
Alternate Titles
Folding screen featuring folk drawings
Exhibition History
2024-2025
Clinton, NY. The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College. "Menagerie: Animals in Art from the Wellin Museum," September 7, 2024 –June 8, 2025 (no cat.).
Clinton, NY. The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College. "Menagerie: Animals in Art from the Wellin Museum," September 7, 2024 –June 8, 2025 (no cat.).
Provenance
1993: Hamilton College (Fred L. Emerson Galler), by gift of Beatrice K. Hofstadter.
Published References
Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, FRIENDS OF ART NEWSLETTER, vol. 1, no. 6, April 1994, "1993 Acquisitions"
Karl Blossfeldt
Date: 1929
Medium: Rotogravure
Object number: 2009.2.2
N. James
Date: June 1818
Medium: Watercolor on paper
Object number: 1971.11
Christoph Jamnitzer
Date: published 1610 (possibly printed later)
Medium: Engraving
Object number: 1928.11
William H. Beard
Date: 1878
Medium: Oil on canvas, mounted on masonite
Object number: 1971.1
Sharon Lockhart
Date: 2008
Medium: Three chromogenic prints
Object number: 2014.1.a-c
Thomas Nast
Date: published December 25, 1886
Medium: Wood engraving on newsprint
Object number: 2019.13.639
Celia Vasquez Yui
Date: 2021
Medium: Coil-built pre-fire slip-painted clay with vegetal resins
Object number: 2022.8.1
Celia Vasquez Yui
Date: 2021
Medium: Coil-built pre-fire slip-painted clay with vegetal resins
Object number: 2022.8.2
Nicario Jiménez Quispe
Date: c. 1992
Medium: Wood and boiled potato and gypsum powder paste with paint
Object number: 2024.6