Birds and Flowers (late 1800s): Art, History and Details

Birds and Flowers (late 1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The image depicted on this folding screen is not executed in ink, but rather a method called “pyrography" or "nakhwa,” a technique of burning the surface of materials ranging from wood to paper with the delicately controlled application of a heated metal tool. This technique became widely popular in the 19th century. Scorched marks here replace brush strokes. Nakhwa method is now designated as a Korean Intangible Cultural Asset by the Korean government.

Object facts

• Title: Birds and Flowers
• Date: late 1800s
• Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Ten-panel folding screen with designs and inscriptions burnt into paper (pyrography)
• Dimensions: Overall: 153.5 x 443 cm (60 7/16 x 174 7/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Folding screen
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1991.80

A detail from the museum

The painting is done by a pyrography method, a technique of burning the surface of materials with a heated tool.

Collection credit

Seventy-fifth anniversary gift of Alan Carter Covell and Kyu J. Pak-Covell

Further reading listed by the museum

• Yi, Seon-hyeong. "Pak Chang-gyu's Scorched Painting of Birds and Flowers [박창규(1783~?)의 낙화 화조도]." Misulsa yeongu (1989): 105–116.
• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1992.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 2 (February 1993): 38–79.
• Kim, In-gyu and Yeong-jo Kim. Nakwajang. Seoul: National Folk Museum of Korea: 2012.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.