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<div>Dear George (and All):</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Which of the Hicks paintings is this, the one you posted? (The
George Washington one I mean?) ...See an assembly of Hicks' various
versions at the END of this message.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>"Washington, Crossing the Delaware" and
"Washington Passing the Delaware" were extremely popular
themes at the time, and until the late 19th century. There are many
hundreds or thousands of paintings, engravings, etchings, and prints
with that as a subject matter. Are you referring to the subject matter
or that particular painting? The de Young Museum with its amazing
collection of 19th century American art (recently rebuild as an
upside-down trash can, a charming piece of postmodern architecture) is
five minutes from where my wife and I live. And if we'd stroll over
there for a Sunday afternoon visit, we would probably bump into a
couple of those, eyes closed. The painting you posted is one of the
better known ones of those "Washington Crossing the Delaware"
ones, by painter Edward Hicks (1870-1849), a Quaker minister and folk
painter from Pennsylvania. But which version? Not that it is important
... well, then again, the fact that there are numerous versions IS
important in the context you presented it to us!</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The more famous ones of these paintings were then copied into
other media by less famous artists. There was a whole industry there
to reproduce such works. See FOR EXAMPLE George S. Lang's
"Washington Passing the Delaware":</div>
<div>http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/wash/aa_wash_soldier_2_e.html</div
>
<div> --> Washington passing the Delaware, evening
previous</div>
<div> to the Battle of Trenton, Dec. 25th, 1776</div>
<div>You can buy that George S. Lang version as a reproduction at
Amazon.com:</div>
<div
>http://www.amazon.com/Washington-passing-Delaware-Reprint-measured/d<span
></span>p/B001FYR78I</div>
<div>They probably have the Kim & Kim portrait as well, if you
rather go for that one, maybe even for Kindle.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Like all 19th century American painters, his style closely
resembles British late 18th and 19th century academic painting (that
of some other painters more resembles French painting--many of the
painters of the times were first generation immigrants anyway--such as
Hubert Vos, whose portrait of King Kojong you will have seen). Pretty
much all of the seascapes, for example, that you see in the de Young,
look all very British (I would probably not know they aren't without
the identifying labels).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The Hicks piece you posted--and all others by Hicks--are
interesting because they show some American local identity (vs. their
British and French prototypes), if you want to call it that. In spite
of the European stylistic adaptations (e.g. of Napoleon in battle
depictions), this is after all "folk art," this is done by
some local minister, not by court artist or professional artist. Here
is a nice large online image of Hick's 1849 version at the Chrysler
Museum of Art:</div>
<div>http://www.chrysler.org/education/unit1/hicks2.htm</div>
<div>Larger image:</div>
<div
>http://www.chrysler.org/education/unit1/unit1_images/hicks_washingto<span
></span>n.77.1271.jpg</div>
<div>The way Hicks uses colors and many other details (e.g. the
depiction of the horse movements and how he deals with large spaces
like the sky etc.) shows that he was not a trained academic
artist.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>What is so interesting is that you are comparing THIS (that is,
one of Hicks' versions of "Washington Passing the Delaware"
paintings) to the North Korean Kim & wife & little Kim
painting. That really totally got me! There are countless 18th and
19th century 'emperor on horseback' paintings, with brown and white
horses from Europe and the U.S. Why this painting? There is not even
any "son" there, and certainly not his wife (as in the Kim &
Kim painting). It is not a battle either; it is the "three
generals'" happy family outing at their very own private
revolutionary site (Paektu-san). The oil painting's title is
"Sunrise at Paektu" (painter Ch'oe Ha-t'aek; published in<i>
Chosôn misul nyôn'gam 1991</i>, p. 70; your posted version cuts
about 1/4 from the right and from the left). In the Hicks painting
there is no visual union of father and son, as in the painting by
Ch'oe--father is riding while son points. Rather, in Hicks shows some
officer or general pointing, but he is riding another horse. There is
no family there. And in a European or American battle depiction one
would not exactly expect that. I think the reason you feel that these
two paintings can be compared, please correct me if I am wrong, is
mostly because of the use of colors and the simplified formal
rendering of space: American folk painting is the keyword here.
Although one and a half centuries apart from the North Korean
painting, it seems to resemble how the North Korean painter used
colors and how he dealt with space and backgrounds (or the other way
around). It is the 'folky' part that you point to. And as such you are
basically making Ch'oe Ha-t'aek a great compliment, as this is exactly
the effect he wanted to create here.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Looking at North Korean oil paintings from the 1945-1950 period
you will find that painters simply continued their colonial-period
styles. And there are plenty of wonderful examples there (e.g. Yi
K'wae-dae, 1913-1965) how European 19th century academic styles lived
on, with a red flag here and there. But not in 1991, in 1991 you won't
find any of this anymore. What<i> seems</i> European or American
history painting isn't really. From the mid- or late 1960s you see
more and more brush and ink painting done the new<i> Chosônhwa</i>
style. And the<i> Chosônhwa</i> style is again loaning (in every
technical aspect I can see) from late colonial<i> Nihonga</i> (which
was then also a tool for propaganda). At this point I might add the
same sentence Hyung Il Pai did in her posting: I want to state that
this is only my personal opinion and does not reflect the main stream
accounts of the development and appreciation of Korean arts. (Not that
of South Korean scholars either). This<i> seems</i> like a
controversial and/or provoking observation only if you look at this
from within the same kimchi pot. Loaning from and building upon--and
reacting to--existing earlier styles and techniques is otherwise what
art AND art history is all about, and it does not at all indicate any
sort of devaluation of the art work to point at such relations. In any
case, to continue,<i> Chosônhwa</i> painting had then a strong
influence on what happened to oil painting in North Korea. So, by the
early 1970s oil painting, the showed many of the same traits<i>
Chosônhwa</i> did: bright colors, simple often monochrome treatments
of backgrounds etc., showing happy smiling people. By the late 1980s
and in the 1990s we see this style completely prevailing over all
other styles: oil painting (and other techniques, e.g. acrylic
painting) had basically adapted<i> Chosônhwa</i> techniques. You now
have a hard time seeing what is brush and ink painting
(<i>Chosônhwa</i>) and what is an oil painting, an acrylic, or a
painting done in e.g. air brush technique--it all looks like<i>
Chosônhwa</i>.</div>
<div>In that technical sense North Koreans have succeeded to create a
new style (even though mostly build upon<i> Nihonga</i> as a starting
point). What you present there in your comparison of Edward Hicks'
Washington on horseback depiction with Ch'oe Ha-t'aek Kim family on
horeseback painting is therefore more of a coincidental similarity. As
far as the technique goes, historically this does not relate (North
Koreans did not get that from U.S. paintings); it appears similar
because of the folk art aspect in Hicks' painting and the adaptation
of<i> Chosônhwa</i> techniques and aesthetics in North Korean oil
painting--the outcome has many similarities. We would then be left
with the subject matter, but here I see more differences than
similarities. However, there are other such North Korean battle scenes
that involve horses, and in some of them we find more similarities,
but then more to<i> general</i> 19th century academic painting
traditions (of depicting battle scenes).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Just noticed I have not discussed the variety of versions and how
this relates to NK ... will do another time.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Best regards,</div>
<div>Frank</div>
<div><br></div>
<div> <img
src="cid:p06240601c8cedfe8006d@[192.168.1.65].1.0"></div>
<div> </div>
<div><br></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div>--------------------------------------<br>
Frank Hoffmann<br>
http://koreaweb.ws</div>
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