• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.79-97
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• 2008

Four Wangs' landscape style (四王山水畵風), which had appeared in Beijing in the early 18th century, widely spread to Korea and Japan in the 19th century and became a significant basis for developing new painting styles in both countries. It was first introduced to Korea by Shin Wi (申緯) and Kim Jeong-hee (金正喜) who associated with literary men of the Qing Dynasty. Being influenced by them directly or indirectly, Shin Myeong-yeon (申命淵), Yi Han-cheol (李漢喆), Yu Suk (劉淑), Changv Seung-eop (張承業), An Choog-sik (安中植), and Jo Seok-jin (趙錫晋) attempted to adapt Four Wangs' landscape style and it later became a main Stream painting style of the Korean painting circles. Based on Four Wangs' landscape style, their landscape paintings had something in common in that they captured natural features from a short distance using the Down-Up prospective and placed guardian mountains across mountain streams by making a tall tree in the right or left bottom of the canvas as the starting point. However, recently unveiled court painter An Geon-yeong (1841~1876)'s the Landscape Screen is remarkable in that it is based on Four Wangs' style, which was in fashion in the late 19th century, but shows different aspects from other Four Wangs' style paintings in terms of feature capturing, brush stroke and colors. While most of An Geon-yeong's existing paintings are small ones, this folding screen is a big piece consisting of six-fold landscape paintings. In particular, it shows new aspects by creating a serene and calm atmosphere through the description of various landscape scenes with thin brush strokes using glossy ink, by showing a macroscopic view in some paintings through feature capture using a birds-eye view method, and by giving life to the canvas through smoke and clouds. This painting style is considered to be linked with those of Wang Xue-hao (王學浩, 1754~1832), Tang Yifen (湯貽汾, 1778~1853) and Dai Xi (戴熙, 1801~1860), based on Four Wangs' style in the early 19th century's Jiangnan Circle (江南 畵壇), who tried to express the energy and vitality of real landscapes by going around China's well-known mountains and complementing painting styles with drawing from nature. Therefore, An Geon-yeong's six-fold Landscape Screen is very significant as a rare case proving the introduction and reception of Jiangnan Circle's Four Wangs' landscape style which was different in many aspects from Beijing Circle in the 19th century.