White Falcon (1500s): Art, History and Details

White Falcon (1500s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The falcon is rendered with highly detailed brushwork, while the surrounding vegetation is depicted with calligraphic lines. This intentional distinction between the carefully managed brushwork of the bird and the expressive treatment of the plants is a key feature of Korean bird-and-flower paintings from the mid-16th and early 17th centuries of the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) within an established classical style.

Object facts

• Title: White Falcon
• Date: 1500s
• Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
• Dimensions: Overall: 86 x 43.2 cm (33 7/8 x 17 in.); Box: 8.9 x 7.6 cm (3 1/2 x 3 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 2026.15

A detail from the museum

In premodern East Asia, the white falcon symbolized an individual of strong moral integrity. Thus, falcon paintings were frequently presented as gifts from the king to meritorious court officials.

Collection credit

Purchase from the Karl B. Goldfield Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• Korean paintings of Yi dynasty (1392-1910) from the Kongetsuken collection 李朝の絵画 : 坤月軒コレクション : 特別展. Toyama-shi: Toyama Bijutsukan, 1985.
• Yūgensai 幽玄齋. Yūgensai sen Kankoku koshoga zuroku [Illustrated Catalogue of Korean Classical Paintings and Clalligrapy in the Yugensai Collection] 幽玄齋選韓國古書畫圖錄. Kyōto: Yūgensai, 1996.

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.