Ch'aekkŏri refers to paintings of books, stationery, ceramics, incense burners, bronze ware and other items found on the bookshelves of scholars, painted on folding screens in the late Chosŏn period. Paintings of this theme did not receive much attention in Korean art except for a small number of folk paining lovers and collectors until the 1970s. Fascinated by ch’aekkŏri during her first visit to Korea in the mid-1970s, the author Kay E. Black started studying the subject and received her master’s degree in art history at University of Denver. Since then, she has vigorously devoted herself to research on ch’aekkŏri, visiting numerous collections in Korea, Japan, the U.S. and Europe and meticulously examining as many as 150 extant works. She also collaborated with the late Edward W. Wagner, formerly Professor of Korean history at Harvard and one of the foremost authorities on Korean genealogies, to identify ch’aekkŏri painters and their intricate family lineages. Their research discovered many of the pieces were painted by professional painters hired at the court, who were closely related in family lineages. More than thirty years of the author’s research on ch’aekkŏri is summed up in this comprehensive study.

Ch'aekkŏri is Although it was once commonly considered as a genre in folk painting, it is now known to have been favored by the royal family and literati and painted by professional court artists during the Chosŏn Dynasty. Ch'aekkŏri was of interest only to folk painting lovers and collectors until the 1970s and did not receive much scholarly attention in Korean painting. Around this time during her first visit to Korea, the author Kay E. Black was fascinated by ch'aekkŏri. On her return to the U.S., she went back to a graduate program at the University of Denver and started studying Asian art and Korean painting, focusing on ch’aekkŏri. She visited numerous collections home and abroad and conducted meticulous research on as many as 150 examples to explore their artistic features, painters, and contextual significance. In timely collaboration with the late Professor Edward W. Wagner of Harvard University, she was able to demonstrate that many ch'aekkŏri paintings were produced by a number of professional painters who worked in the Royal Painting Bureau for the court and scholarly gentlemen. The author categorizes ch'aekkŏri paintings into three types: "Isolated," "Trompe l'Oeil," and "Still Life," and analyzes their characteristics in each type. She also traces the intricate relationships between painters in style and pedigree. The Appendix contains an examination by Professor Gary Ledyard of Columbia University of various Korean and Chinese books depicted in ch'aekkŏri paintings. As Professor Ahn Hwi-joon, an authority on Korean painting, states in the Foreword, this book is a seminal contribution to the study of this important theme in Korean painting and an indispensible work in any further scholarly pursuit of this subject in future research.

Kay E. Black

Kay E. Black (1928-2020) received a master’s degree at the University of Denver. Her publications include such articles on ch’aekkŏri as “Ch’aekkŏri Paintings: A Korean Jigsaw Puzzle”(1993) and “Court Style Ch’aekkŏri”(1998), both coauthored with Edward W. Wagner. She also published “St. Ottilien’s Six ‘True View Landscapes’ by Chŏng Sŏn” with Eckarte Dege, which presents an inspring, new interpretation of the viewing spot of Diamond Mountain in the painting.

Edward W. Wagner

Edward W. Wagner (1924-2001) is the late professor and founder of Korean Studies at Harvard University. He was a specialist on Chosŏn dynasty history and the leading expert on Korean genealogy.

Gari Ledyard (1932-) is Sejong Professor Emeritus of Korean History at Columbia University. He wrote on diverse aspects of the Koryŏ and Chosŏn dynasties including the invention of the Korean alphabet, Han'gŭl, during the fifteenth century.