Manpokdong Valley from Album of the Four Districts of Geumgang River

Kim Eung-hwan , Joseon Period 18th Century (1742~1789)

In 1788, Kim Ŭng-hwan was dispatched together with Kim Hong-do to the Four Districts of Yŏngdong on the personal command of King Chŏngjo, there to paint views from life and present them to the throne. It is recorded that when Kim Hong-do asked him to produce a copy of Chŏng Sŏn's Complete View of the Diamond Mountains, he readily complied — a detail that speaks to Kim Ŭng-hwan's sustained engagement with the painting of actual scenery. Among the works transmitted under his name is the Album of the Diamond Mountains and the Four Districts (Kŭmgang Sagun Ch'ŏp — the current title), encompassing celebrated views of the inner and outer Diamond Mountains and the scenic sites of the Kangwŏn coast; it has been reported that several leaves from this album, including the scene of Manp'ok-tong, were at some point separated and preserved independently. The present work corresponds so closely in pictorial character to the album that it is almost certainly one of those detached leaves.

Manp'ok-tong ranked among the most celebrated scenic sites within the Diamond Mountains, and as such it was an obligatory subject in virtually every Diamond Mountain album. In this composition, Kŭmgang Terrace is given commanding prominence at the center of the picture, scholars are shown seated in easy conversation on the broad flat rocks between two converging streams, and beyond the terrace a series of sharply tapering peaks rises into the sky. In its handling of loosely variable brushwork with dynamic shifts between thick and thin strokes, its finely calibrated tonal range of ink, its use of graded washes to evoke the textured surface of rocks, and its characteristically tapered side-brush dots with their sharp leftward flicks, the work reflects the essential qualities of Chŏng Sŏn's pictorial manner in its composition, brushwork, ink technique, and treatment of trees alike — yet it has undergone a complete transformation into a style of an altogether different sensibility. The subtle deployment of restrained color washes lends an additional quality of refinement, and taken as a whole, the painting reveals a highly individual pictorial vision in which faithful description and lyrical atmosphere are held in studied and persuasive equilibrium.