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Painting of One Hundred Themes
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Painting of One Hundred Themes

late 1800s · Ten-panel folding screen affixed with album leaves (obverse), calligraphy (reverse), ink and color on silk

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.

About this work

The front of this screen features an assortment of subjects: birds and flowers, landscapes, and scenes of everyday life, mostly in monochromatic ink with light colors. The screen’s reverse side conveys a number of classical poems about the fleeting beauty of the four seasons. Traditionally, only one side of a folding screen bears painted or embroidered images, since these were used as a background furnishing. In Korean houses by the 1800s and early 1900s, however, two-sided folding screens became noticeably popular, possibly inspired by Japanese double-sided folding screens, which mainly served as room dividers in Japanese households.

Cleveland Museum of Art’s own description
Credit linePainting of One Hundred Themes (백납도 [白衲圖]), late 1800s. Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910). Ten-panel folding screen affixed with album leaves (obverse), calligraphy (reverse), ink and color on silk; overall: 117.7 x 335 cm (46 5/16 x 131 7/8 in.); painting only: 164.5 x 43.6 cm (64 3/4 x 17 3/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Gordon K. Mott, 1998.286

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