Korea, Joseon Dynasty (1392−1897)
Hanging scroll: ink, color, and gold pigment on silk
29⅞ x 17⅛ in. (76 x 43.5 cm)
From a set of four paintings of virtuous women
Signed: Bangho ja and dated 8/1763
A woman depicted in three-quarter view to the viewer’s left is dressed in a green jacket and blue skirt customary for mothers with sons, with a bookcase behind her. Pensively, she gestures toward her neck with her right hand, while her left hand is tucked under the folds of her blue skirt. The bookcase has scholarly accoutrements, such as bound volumes of books, a paper box on a carved wooden stand, a tall seal with a lion finial, a blue-and-white porcelain cup in a red lacquered holder and a cylindrical wooden container with brushes, a foldable measure, and a paddle fan with a polychrome painting of white plum blossoms and bamboo inscribed (eighth month 1763, Bangho-ja) and sealed by the artist. With the exception of Cloud Dream of the Nine (Gu’unmong), a seventeenth-century Korean novel, the other volumes are Chinese texts ranging from the historic Record of the Three Kingdoms (Samgukji), Record of Filial Piety (Hyohaeng’rok), and two novels, Journey to the West (Seoyugi), and Water Margin (Suhoji). These books would have been appropriate for men of the elite yangban class, symbolizing the status of the woman’s husband and future ambitions for her son.
Korea, Joseon Dynasty (1392−1910), 18th century
Ink, color, and gold pigment on silk
Painting: 39½ x 21½ in. (100.3 x 54.6 cm)
Inscription signed by Yi Jeongsong (1692−1759), dated 1753, late Fall
Shown in three-quarter view, the seated subject of the portrait, Yi Jeongbo (1693–1766) was a respected scholar-official during the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) who succeeded in rising to high levels of government despite an earlier political setback for opposing a reigning king’s policies. The commissioned portrait was painted by an unknown court painter on the occasion of Yi Jeongbo’s sixtieth birthday and inscribed by Yi Jongseong (1692–1759), a fellow scholar-official. Yi Jeongbo is dressed simply in a white robe with a red ribbon tied around his waist and a black tanggeon hat woven out of horsehair. The sitter’s long white beard and wrinkles speak to his advanced age and reflects the period attitudes toward portraiture of distinguished men, which valued verisimilitude to capture facial features that were exemplary of the individual’s character. While the simple palette of the painting suggests the subject’s modesty, this work is the only confirmed example of Joseon portraiture that uses gold pigment to color the iris of the eyes. The balance between subtlety and minute but nonetheless sumptuous detail evokes the fine balance between the scholarly ideal of humility and the celebratory occasion for this portrait.
Color woodblock print: ōban tate-e,
15½ x 10½ in. (39.4 x 26.7 cm); Bunsei era, ca. 1823
Series: Comparison of Fashionable Beauties of the Floating World (Ukiyo fuzoku bijo kurabe)
Signed: Keisai Eisen ga
Publisher: Jakurindō (Wakasaya Yōichi)
Censor’s seal: kiwame (approved)
Color woodblock print: nagaban tate-e,
20⅜ x 9 in. (51.8 x 22.9 cm); ca. 1833–34
Series: True Mirror of Chinese and Japanese Poems (Shiika shashinkyō)
Signed: Saki no Hokusai Iitsu hitsu
Publisher: Kinshindō (Moriya Jihei)
Amida Waterfall in the Far Reaches of the Kiso Road (Kisoji no oku Amidagataki)
Color woodblock print: ōban tate-e,
15¼ x 10¼ in. (38.7 x 26 cm); ca. 1833
Series: A Tour of the Waterfalls in the Various Provinces (Shokoku taki meguri)
Signed: Saki no Hokusai Iitsu hitsu
Publisher: Eijudō (Nishimuraya Yohachi)
Color woodblock print, nagaban tate-e, (19⅞ x 9⅜ in. 50.5 x 23.8 cm); circa 1833-35
Signature: Kōchōrō Kunisada ga (on the folding fan)
Censor’s seals: kiwame
Publisher: Kinrindō (Moriya Jihei)
Color woodblock print: aiban uchiwa-e, 9¼ x 11⅝ in. (23.5 x 29.5 cm); circa 1830
Series: Three Fashionable Tipplers (Fūzoku san-nin namayoi)
Signed: Gototei Kunisada ga
Color woodblock print: shikishiban surimono,
8⅛ x 7¼ in. (20.6 x 18.4 cm); ca. 1818
Sealed: Shosadō (studio seal of Kubo Shunman)
Issued by the Yomogawa (Four Directions Group)
Poems signed: Gurendō and Kyōkadō (Yomo no Magao)
The Hanging-cloud Bridge at Mount Gyōdō near Ashikaga (Ashikaga Gyōdōzan Kumo no kakehashi)
Color woodblock print: ōban yoko-e, 10¼ x 15⅛ in. (26 x 38.4 cm); late 1833
Series: Remarkable Views of the Bridges in All Provinces (Shokoku meikyō kiran)
Signed: Saki no Hokusai Iitsu hitsu
Censor’s seal: kiwame (approved)
Publisher: Eijudō (Nishimuraya Yohachi
Color woodblock print: ōban yoko-e, 9 x 13⅞ in. (22.9 x 35.2 cm); ca. 1834–35
Series: Eight Views of Ōmi (Ōmi hakkei no uchi)
Signed: Hiroshige ga
Censor’s seal: kiwame (approved)
Publisher: Hōeidō (Takenouchi Magohachi)
Meritorious Men and Virtuous Women: Five Important Eighteenth-Century Korean Paintings
September 28 − October 9, 2026 Special Hours: Mon-Fri, 11am-5pm or by appointment (closed Oct 3-4)
We are pleased to present Meritorious Men and Virtuous Women: Five Important Eighteenth-Century Korean Paintings, featuring a small group of rare figure paintings from the late Joseon dynasty. A tradition of commemorative portraits of celebrated scholar-bureaucrats became a part of the court’s artistic production, where painters in the Joseon royal painting bureau were commissioned to paint portraits of elite men. Women were rarely the subject of figurative paintings and portraits, with a few select exceptions. For the most part, upper-class women are not depicted in Joseon dynasty paintings in accordance with period standards of propriety where the domestic lives of respectable women were kept private.
The coincidental acquisition of two fine works, a single portrait of a member of the scholarly elite, and a set of four paintings of virtuous women, have been brought together for the present exhibition. The Portrait of Yi Jeongbo at his 60th Birthday Party and the Four Paintings of Virtuous Women by Jang Shiheung together reflect the societal ideals of the Joseon dynasty. Mothers and wives, young and old, worked together to support the men of the family and raise sons to continue the patrilineal family line so that one day they could become accomplished men, such as Yi Jeongbo. The large scale of the paintings of women contrasts with the privacy of the domestic scenes that are usually shielded from public. However, the plentiful use of colorful pigment and accents of gold speak to the importance of these paintings, which captured the model behavior of upper-class women that served to support the public lives of upper-class men as scholar-officials and patriarchs and uphold Neo-Confucian patrilineal values.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.
With over forty years’ experience as an auction-house specialist, appraiser, and dealer in Japanese and Korean art, I formed Sebastian Izzard LLC, a New York company, in 1998 in order to offer the kind of personal expertise, attention, and insights that are especially valuable to discriminating collectors world-wide. As a company we deal in all periods, from early to modern, the principal criterion being one of quality. Regular travel in the United States and overseas, to Japan and Europe, keeps us abreast of the international market and in touch with a global network. We welcome inquiries from clients old and new, whether prompted by an interest in the purchase or sale of works of art, in our exhibitions and catalogues, or in our appraisal and consulting services.
