Kim Jeong-hui’s Sehando (Winter Scene)

Also called: Sehando, Winter Scene

Painted by the exiled Kim Jeong-hui for his student Yi Sang-jeok, who kept sending him books — pines and cypresses in winter as a symbol of unchanging loyalty.

Kim Jeong-hui painted it in 1844 while in exile at Daejeong on Jeju. His student Yi Sang-jeok, an interpreter, had not forgotten his fallen teacher and kept obtaining rare books for him in Qing China. Kim praised his fidelity with a line from the Analects: “Only when the year grows cold do we know that the pine and cypress are the last to fade.”

A lonely house and a few pines and cypresses are drawn tersely with a dry brush. It is a masterpiece of literati painting, revealing the painter’s mind and learning rather than outward likeness. Yi took it to Beijing and had sixteen Qing scholars add their comments. A National Treasure, it was donated in 2020 by its owner Son Chang-geun and is in the National Museum of Korea.