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Person1745

Kim Hong-do (Danwon)

Court painter who portrayed King Jeongjo and is best known for genre scenes of commoners such as The Village School and Ssireum; he died around 1806

He studied painting under Gang Se-hwang as a boy. His genre paintings, gathered in the Danwon pungsokdo album, are marked by spare, vigorous lines and humour. He also excelled at landscapes, Daoist immortals and documentary painting. For painting the royal portrait of Jeongjo in 1791 he was made magistrate of Yeonpung.

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3 related events

  1. 1
    AD 400Ssireumrelated figure

    A traditional contest of strength and skill in which wrestlers grip each other’s satba belts and try to throw each other. It is depicted in the Goguryeo Gakjeochong mural, and in 2018 it became the first heritage jointly inscribed by South and North Korea on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

  2. 2
    1700 – 1863Rise of Commoner Culturecreator

    As commoners grew wealthier in late Joseon, pansori, mask dance, Hangul novels and narrative sijo flourished, along with the genre paintings of Kim Hong-do and Sin Yun-bok and anonymous folk painting.

  3. 3
    1780Kim Hong-do’s Genre Paintingscreator

    The court painter Kim Hong-do depicted commoners at work and play — the village school, wrestling, a boy dancer — in humorous circular compositions without backgrounds.

Related works

Dramatized works (films, dramas, novels) may differ from the historical record.

People who appear alongside

  • Sin Yun-bok (Hyewon)1758

    Painter of the leisure and romance of urban aristocrats and women in fine line and colour, as in Dano pungjeong and Portrait of a Beauty; year of death unknown

  • Heo Gyun1569 – 1618

    Writer traditionally credited with the Korean-script novel Hong Gil-dong jeon; his Homillon spoke of the power of the people, and he was executed for treason

  • Jeongjo1752 – 1800

    Twenty-second king of Joseon, founder of the Gyujanggak library and builder of Hwaseong Fortress

Themes this person appears in

  • Ming, Qing and Edo Japan1500 – 1800

    The age when the Ming, shaken by northern raiders, southern pirates and the silver economy, fell to Li Zicheng’s rebels, and the Manchu Qing reached its greatest extent and prosperity under Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong — as Japan was unified out of the Warring States into the Edo shogunate’s bakuhan order and closed country, and Joseon, after two great wars, met its neighbours through embassies to Edo and the Northern Learning

  • The Course of Korean PaintingAD 450 – 1897

    From Goguryeo tomb murals to Jang Seung-eop — daily life and guardian deities, Goryeo Buddhist painting, early Joseon landscapes, true-view landscapes and genre painting, literati and folk painting

  • Intangible and World Heritage2000 BC – 1850

    From the dolmens to Namhansanseong on the World Heritage List, from Jongmyo ritual music to ssireum on the Intangible Heritage lists — where each came from and when it was inscribed