Landscape

Yi Jeong, Joseon Period 16th Century (1578~1607)

Yi Jeong (1578–1607), whose courtesy name was Gonggan and art names were Naong and Nawa, hailed from the Jeonju Yi clan. He was a prominent painter from a prestigious lineage of court painters that had led the art world since the early Joseon period; his grandfather Yi Sang-jwa (1465–?), father Yi Sung-hyo, and uncle Yi Heung-hyo (1537–1593) were all celebrated court artists. Although a professional painter by trade, Yi Jeong studied poetry and prose under Choi Rip (Ganyidang) and maintained close ties with leading literati of the time, such as Heo Gyun. Heo Gyun once praised him, stating, "Yi Jeong’s landscape paintings originated from the techniques of An Gyeon but are more seasoned, and while his figure paintings were inherited from his grandfather, their brilliance is more vivid." Indeed, Yi Jeong was a preeminent artist of the mid-Joseon period who inherited the traditional An Gyeon school style—representative of early Joseon landscapes—while also assimilating the Zhe school and Southern school styles.

This six-panel Landscape (Sansudo) by Yi Jeong depicts scholars enjoying the grandeur of nature. The set is composed of an asymmetrical layout (pyeonpa-gudo), with three panels weighted toward the left and three toward the right. Notably, while the first two panels represent spring and the following two represent summer, the final two appear to depict autumn and winter. This suggests the possibility that the set originally consisted of eight panels, similar to the Eight Views of the Four Seasons or Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers, with two panels currently missing. In particular, the fourth panel bears a striking resemblance to the "Night Rain on the Xiao and Xiang Rivers" from Yi Jing’s Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers (housed in the National Museum of Korea) in its depiction of mist-covered mountains, overall composition, and arrangement of motifs. However, in this work, the foreground earthen slope (topa) is expanded to include a reclining ox—a typical motif of the mid-Joseon period—making it the only panel in the set without a human figure. Furthermore, it is intriguing to observe that a boat with a reclining scholar appears once every two panels in nearly identical form.

Throughout these six panels, Yi Jeong suggests a vast sense of space through the use of water surfaces and mist. Elements such as the composition, the "crab-claw" tree branch techniques (sujibeop), and the mountain surfaces rendered with "short line-and-dot" brushstrokes (danseon-jeomjun) clearly reflect the influence of the An Gyeon school. At the same time, the fifth panel, featuring a "small-scene landscape with figures" (sogyeong sansu-inmulhwa), demonstrates his masterful synthesis of his family’s traditional style with the mid-Joseon trends popularized by contemporary artists like Yi Gyeong-yun.