<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
<html><head><style type="text/css"><!--
blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li { padding-top: 0 ; padding-bottom: 0 }
--></style><title>Re: [KS] Kanghwa Treaty diplomatic
protocol</title></head><body>
<div>Hi Christine, hi Professor Sands:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Long time no see ... nice to hear from you this way.</div>
<div>I have something that comes at least close. The Treaty of Kanghwa
was in 1876, and there sure must be some eyewitness reports of it, but
I haven't seen any, nor looked in that time frame in any more detail.
But here is a painting from seven years later that depicts the state
banquet celebrating the Korean-Japanese Trade Agreement of 1883.</div>
<div>http://koreaproject.info/images/AnChungsik1883.jpg</div>
<div>It has been painted by An Chung-sik (1861-1919) in that year, who
was then a still very young court painter at the Chosôn Bureau of
Painting (Tohwasô). He should become one of the three four most
important painters marking the transition period from late Chosôn to
early colonial Korea. I love to show this image as uri kyopo Paul
Georg von Möllendorff (1847-1901) is depicted on it (upper left
corner), and because it demonstrates the Korean effort to westernize
(see the chairs, table, table cloth, candle holders, and other
details), yet also shows how far behind Korea was in that respect if
looking at the painting technique (e.g. comparing techniques of
perspective with Hanekawa Tóei's 1719/20 colored wood print of a
Korean delegation http://koreaproject.info/images/Michinobu1720.jpg).
Interestingly, many Korean art histories point out that An Chung-sik
was the first to introduce a "Western" (Renaissance)
technique of perspective in a 1915 painting series -- but looking
closer, he really doesn't, it still isn't.</div>
<div>Anyway, my general impression from reading through various
foreigner's accounts of the 1880s -- which, of course is 5 to 10 years
later than the Kanghwa Treaty -- is that Koreans made every effort to
westernize even if just for the purpose of making foreign delegations
feel welcome. </div>
<div><br></div>
<div><img src="cid:p06240800c360bf5a2a05@[192.168.0.4].1.0"></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div>--------------------------------------<br>
Frank Hoffmann<br>
http://koreaweb.ws</div>
</body>
</html>