Rocks and orchids

The orchid is one of the so-called “four gentlemen,” a grouping favored by Korean scholar-painters that also includes plum blossoms, chrysanthemums, and bamboo. Some orchids, though inconspicuous, give off a marvelous fragrance that travels far, thus symbolizing the ideal virtues of scholars. During the end of the Joseon dynasty and the beginning of the Japanese colonization of Korea, Kim Eungwon was a major painter of the rocks-and-orchids motif in ink. Kim Eungwon excelled in calligraphy of a fluid nature and in painting rocks and orchids in ink monochrome, such as those seen in this pair of hanging scrolls.