Rocks and Orchids (Seoknan)

Garden rocks in unusual shapes were favored among scholars as a subject for painting, but the work shown here is unlike traditional depictions of eroded rocks. Instead of rendering a realistic depiction, Jeong built up the entire rock form using a series of interconnected vertical and horizontal cubes. He also sprinkled the contours with two-tailed dots. To balance the structural and cubic nature of the rock, he painted gentle orchid leaves and flowers behind the rock as well as thorn bushes in soft washes on the ground.

The inscription on the left reads:
People say there is a pavilion on the moon,
but it may just be a shadow of mountains and rivers.
Jagged rocks fill the sea and rise above it,
making the blue clouds proud of the soaring peaks.
(Translated by Dr. Sun-hak Choy)

Below Jeong Hak-gyo’s signature at the upper left is an intaglio seal with his name, and at the lower right is a relief seal that says, “At the age of seventy-nine, in a