Sage under a Pine Tree 

Yi In-mun, Joseon Period 18th Century (1745~1812)

As his sobriquet Kosong Yusugwan Doin (古松流水館道人 — "The Wayfarers of the Hall of Ancient Pines and Flowing Waters") suggests, Yi In-mun consistently favored compositions in which figures are set against a landscape backdrop of ancient pines and running water. This work is no exception: a reclusive man of cultivated retirement is shown seated on a hillside, gazing at the stream before him, with a pine growing at an angle from a cliff face rising behind. A fan rests by his side, suggesting that the scene depicts a summer retreat — a scholar who has come to seek refreshment from the heat in the cool shade of a pine-sheltered valley. This compositional approach connects directly to works such as Conversation beneath a Pine (松下談笑圖), painted when Yi In-mun was sixty-one years of age. In the cliff face and earthen embankment rendered in parched brushwork, and in the angular, faceted manner in which the pine is described, the distinctive personal touch of Yi In-mun's hand is unmistakably felt.