Portrait of an Official (early 1800s): Art, History and Details

Portrait of an Official (early 1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The quest of capturing one’s spirit through imagery held a special place in the tradition of portrait making in East Asia. A portrait’s resemblance to the subject was considered to be a way to transmit the sitter’s spirit to the viewer. A three-quarter view, much preferred in Joseon-period portraits like this one, allows the viewer to examine the sitter’s personality or spirit without an exchange of glances. Dressed in a pale pink court uniform, the gentleman sits on a chair draped with leopard skin, a symbol of royal favor. Due to the missing inscription, which was likely trimmed off, we cannot identify him. Yet, we know a few things: His uniform informs us that he worked in the royal court sometime during the 1700s or later because the color of office uniforms changed from dark green to pale pink in the early 1700s. Considered to be an important historical family relic, this type of full-length portrait was often placed above the spirit house and venerated during ancestral worship rituals.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of an Official
• Date: early 1800s
• Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
• Dimensions: Painting only: 147.7 x 76.4 cm (58 1/8 x 30 1/16 in.); Overall: 218.9 x 89.6 cm (86 3/16 x 35 1/4 in.); Overall with knobs and cord: 221.9 x 96.9 cm (87 3/8 x 38 1/8 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1999.45

A detail from the museum

A piece of leopard skin covering the chair is a typical gift from the royal court to court officials.

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cho, Sun-mie. Portrait Paintings in Korea [한국초상화 연구]. Seoul: Youlhwadang, 1983.
• Yi, Tae-ho. Realism in Late-Joseon Period Painting [조선 후기 회화 의 사실 정신. Seoul: Hakkojae, 1996.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Major Contemporary German Painting Acquired by CMA,” June 9, 1999, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.

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.