Landscape

Cho Jeong-gyu, Joseon Period 18th Century (1971~?)

Cho Chŏng-gyu's courtesy name was Sŏngsŏ (聖瑞) and his sobriquet Imjŏn (琳田); his lineage was of Haman. A professional painter attached to the royal Bureau of Painting, he served in the post of Kŏmjŏl Jesa, and was the paternal grandfather of Cho Sŏk-jin (趙錫晉, 1853–1920). He left behind landscape and figure paintings that reflect the influence of Kim Hong-do, and as historical records attest that he was particularly celebrated for his paintings of fish and crabs, a considerable number of such works have come down to us.

The inscription reading "Along the horizon, mountains at dusk in the manner of Huang Dachi; among the clouds, autumn trees in the manner of Li Yingqiu (天際暮山黄大癡 雲邊秋樹李營邱)" makes clear that Cho Chŏng-gyu consciously engaged in this work with the pictorial idioms of Huang Gongwang (黄公望) and Li Cheng (李成). His depiction of the mountains through hemp-fiber texture strokes (p'imajun) and rice-dot strokes (mijeom) does indeed bear a close resemblance to Huang Gongwang's manner, while the rough and wiry treatment of trees appears to be related to Li Cheng. Yet the work goes beyond mere emulation of their respective brushwork sensibilities: in the handling of the brushstrokes and the graduated washes alike, Cho Chŏng-gyu's individual character asserts itself with unmistakable presence.

In the foreground, two small triangular hillocks succeed one another in close proximity; across the river in the far distance, similarly shaped low hills are repeated in overlapping formation. A mountain cropped at the right edge of the composition serves to bridge foreground and middle distance. The compositional strategy of deploying near-identical hill forms in rhythmic repetition to create a sense of spatial recession — reinforced by an unusual ink tonality suffused with a blue-green cast — is notably modern in sensibility. The mountains are first established as silhouettes through dilute, lightly染 contour washes, upon which hemp-fiber strokes and small rice-dot clusters are then built up in progressive gradations of increasingly dense ink, leaving a quality of spreading diffusion in their wake. This subtle and nuanced management of ink is the hallmark of Cho Chŏng-gyu's particular strength, and may be regarded as characteristic of a transitional moment poised between tradition and modernity. The work bears a white-text square seal reading Yŏn'gyu (延奎) and a vermilion square seal reading Imjŏn (琳田).