Winter Landscape (1500s): Art, History and Details

Winter Landscape (1500s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Yeoseol (Korean).

The work and its context

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

This wintry vista is a vivid example of idealistic monumental painting: the strong contrasts of ink washes and contouring brush lines; the bold outlining of rock shapes and tree trunks; and the many short, twisting brushstrokes that build up the surfaces of the rocks. Much of the painting’s appeal can be attributed to the dynamic lines and contrasting tonal patterns that lead the viewer’s eye from the lower foreground toward the cold mountain peaks in the distance. In the corner is a seal that reads "Yeoseol," meaning "Snow-Like."

Object facts

• Title: Winter Landscape
• Date: 1500s
• Creator attribution: Yeoseol (Korean)
• Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink and slight color on silk
• Dimensions: Image: 92.4 x 52.7 cm (36 3/8 x 20 3/4 in.); Overall: 195.6 x 74.9 cm (77 x 29 1/2 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1986.45

A detail from the museum

This wintry scenery was mainly painted in monochrome ink, but some details like the rider's horse saddle and the servant's carrier attest the use of light blue pigment.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1986.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 74, no. 2 (February 1987): 38–79.
• Tōyō kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [東洋絵画の精華: 特别展: クリーヴラント美術館のコレクションから= Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998.
• Hong, Sun-pyo. "Understanding and Adopting Chinese Painting in 15th-and-16th-century Korean Art Scene [15ㆍ16세기 조선화단의 중국화 인식과 수용태도]." Misulsa nondan (2008): 49–73.

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.