작업 소개

57STUDIO는 국립현대미술관의 열린강좌 프로그램 중 미술관 소장품 강좌 시리즈를 제작하였습니다. 윤범모 관장이 직접 작품을 설명하는 형식으로 구성하였으며, 실제 교육 현장에서 효과적인 학습 자료로 활용될 수 있도록 제작되었습니다. 또한, 어느 장면을 캡처하더라도 교육 자료로서의 기능이 충실히 전달될 수 있도록 화면을 구성하였습니다. 이 시리즈는 작가 12명의 작품을 조명하며, 매주 수요일 YouTube LIVE를 통해 공개되었습니다.

57STUDIO produced the Museum Collection Lecture Series as part of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s (MMCA) open lecture program. The series was structured in a format where Director Yoon Bum-mo personally explains each artwork, ensuring its effectiveness as a valuable educational resource for use in learning environments.

The videos were designed so that every frame could function as an informative material, regardless of where it was captured. This series highlights the works of 12 artists and was released weekly via YouTube LIVE every Wednesday.

Chad Yongshin, Portrait of Emperor Gojong, 1920

Today, I’ll talk about Portrait of Emperor Gojong, painted by Chae Yongshin. This work is called Eojin (御眞), a portrait of a king. In the Joseon Dynasty, there was a system of Dohwaseo (a court painting institution) and court painters.

Court painters produced portraits of royalty. Selected from the middle class, court painters were in charge of various royal duties related to art. One of the most important responsibilities was producing a portrait of a king. Chae Yongshin (artist name: Seokji), who was active from the late 19th and early 20th century, was from a family of military officials, belonging to yangban (ruling gentry). It means he wasn’t from the middle class. It is not precisely known how he learned the skills of painting portraits. However, in the late 19th century, he was undoubtedly active as the last portrait painter of the Joseon Dynasty. A decent number of portraits remain now.

A portrait of Hwang Hyun remains, and we can see the work was produced using photography. In the 1920s and 1930s, because of the segregation of men and women, a woman could not be photographed by a male photographer. So Chae’s daughter-in-law opened a photo studio that specialized in portraits of women. I think that Lee Hong-kyeong Chae’s daughter-in-law is the first person to run a photography studio for women. Aided with photos, Chae painted portraits made to order. It is interesting that Chae actively promoted portrait production and enforced a fixed-price system for his studio, Seokji Workshop (Chaeseokgang Dohwaseo). For a full-length portrait, he earned 100 won. As a full-time artist, he was the first portrait painter who worked in a fixed-price system. Of particular note is that Chae painted portraits regardless of class, gender, or age if the price was paid. Therefore, there remain many portraits of women. In the late Joseon period, women could not become painters, nor models. It is meaningful that Chae daringly broke social customs in that way, living in a society where even a queen could not leave any portrait behind. Revealing this aspect of modernity, he is an extremely significant artist in the history of Korean art.

This work shows the Emperor Gojong at the age of forty nine. ‘Royal Portrait of Korean Empire Emperor at the Age of Forty Nine (大韓國太上皇帝四十九世御容)’ is written on the painting. ‘Eoyong (御容)’ means the face of the king. He practiced Yimosa (移模寫). It means that the piece followed an original work, meaning Chae produced another version of it. So the work allows us to see how the Emperor looked at the age of forty nine. It depicts a robust stature and a generous personality. The various patterns such as the gold leaf of the royal robe are delicately described. The yellow color stands for the center and only the king could use it. That’s why his robe is yellow. In the painting, Chae’s talent as an artist is evident, and the spirit of Emperor Gojong is revealed with a fairly stable composition and detailed strokes, not to mention with his likeness as well.

How could he engage in the production of the king’s portraits? We could ask this question. Chae worked in the Jeollabuk-do Province, and, in a way, he could be seen as the first ‘full-time painter’ of modern times. His son (Chae Sang-muk, 1889-1951) and grandson (Chae Kyu-young, 1910-1949) were also involved in painting, mainly portraits. In the 1920s and the 1930s, Chae taught photography techniques to his son and a daughter-in-law, allowing them to run a photography studio in Seoul. Chae mostly engaged in the genre of traditional portraits as his mode of expression, but he also applied the new medium of photography for the production of portraits.

The technique of his portraits reflects the term, ‘Jeonshinsajo (傳神寫照).’ It means that a portrait captured the spirit of a character, not just depicting the appearance in a realistic way. The painting guaranteed realism, and it also created a depth of expression revealing the mentality and the personality of the sitter. It is not known from whom Chae learned the technique of portraiture, but he left portraits of various people by the early 20th century.

He painted people of the highest rank including kings, but also lower class people such as a couple of the countryside. In the beginning, Chae focused on painting patriots like Hwang Hyeon. Probably because he worked in Jeollabuk-do Province, he left behind several portraits of the figures from the region. He also produced a portrait that depicted just one woman figure. As already mentioned, it means that he radically broke down the social code. As the last royal portrait painter of the Joseon Dynasty, and a portrait painter in general, Chae is an outstandingly significant painter in the history of Korean art.