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<TITLE>Re: [KS] Kim and Washington</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'>Frank and all,<BR>
<BR>
The painting is not by Hicks, but by Thomas Sully, and was painted shortly after the British burned down much of Washington DC. The Korean piece was scanned from last week's Economist magazine as part of a cutely titled article, "Next of Kim."<BR>
<BR>
Here is the MFA's description of the Sully piece: The Passage of the Delaware. 1819. By Thomas Sully, American (born in England), 1783–1872<BR>
372.11 x 525.78 cm (146 1/2 x 207 in.). Oil on canvas. <BR>
<BR>
"The Passage of the Delaware was commissioned by the state of North Carolina for the Senate Hall of the State House in Raleigh. ...Sully's painting was never hung in the State House. Although Sully had corresponded with the North Carolina governor regarding the dimensions of his canvas, he had already begun painting by the time he received a reply. The final composition was too large to fit in any of the spaces of the Senate Hall. Instead, shortly after its completion, the artist sold the painting to John Doggett, a Boston frame maker who also exhibited pictures. It was purchased from Doggett before 1841 by the Boston Museum-no relation to the Museum of Fine Arts, but rather a theater with a picture gallery located on Tremont Street-where it remained until 1903, when the owners gave it to the MFA."--<a href="http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?recview=true&id=31231">http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?recview=true&id=31231</a><BR>
"This text was adapted from Davis, et al., MFA Highlights: American Painting (Boston, 2003)."<BR>
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.<BR>
<BR>
I might add that the image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired under provisions that apply to the United States, Australia, the European Union and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.<BR>
<BR>
I teach about half my classes (world civilizations before 1500) in the MFA and also take my Asian social movements class there at least a few times to orient them in the culture and history of Asia and to glimpse the varying aesthetic expression of cultural differences among its people. Jane Portal, the new MFA curator of the Korean room, recently told me she hopes to reinstall the collection, which she called one of the finest in the US. <BR>
<BR>
I look forward to the opening of the MFA's new American wing next month, although their collection is so extensive, I am not sure the Sully piece will be up. I suspect they will include a different monumental canvas (see below), by Gilbert Stuart (the same artist whose imagery graces the one dollar bill). “Washington at Dorchester Heights” presents a slightly different juxtaposition of the horse and the president.<BR>
<BR>
<IMG src="cid:3369029378_3969556" ><BR>
<BR>
Cheers,<BR>
<BR>
George<BR>
<BR>
<FONT COLOR="#0000FF">> From: Frank Hoffmann <hoffmann@koreaweb.ws><BR>
> Reply-To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws><BR>
> Date: Sun, 3 Oct 2010 18:36:16 -0700<BR>
> To: <koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws><BR>
> Subject: [KS] Kim and Washington<BR>
> <BR>
> Dear George (and All):<BR>
> <BR>
> Which of the Hicks paintings is this, the one you <BR>
> posted? (The George Washington one I mean?) <BR>
> ...See an assembly of Hicks' various versions at <BR>
> the END of this message.<BR>
> <BR>
> "Washington, Crossing the Delaware" and <BR>
> "Washington Passing the Delaware" were extremely <BR>
> popular themes at the time, and until the late <BR>
> 19th century. There are many hundreds or <BR>
> thousands of paintings, engravings, etchings, and <BR>
> prints with that as a subject matter. Are you <BR>
> referring to the subject matter or that <BR>
> particular painting? The de Young Museum with its <BR>
> amazing collection of 19th century American art <BR>
> (recently rebuild as an upside-down trash can, a <BR>
> charming piece of postmodern architecture) is <BR>
> five minutes from where my wife and I live. And <BR>
> if we'd stroll over there for a Sunday afternoon <BR>
> visit, we would probably bump into a couple of <BR>
> those, eyes closed. The painting you posted is <BR>
> one of the better known ones of those "Washington <BR>
> Crossing the Delaware" ones, by painter Edward <BR>
> Hicks (1870-1849), a Quaker minister and folk <BR>
> painter from Pennsylvania. But which version? Not <BR>
> that it is important ... well, then again, the <BR>
> fact that there are numerous versions IS <BR>
> important in the context you presented it to us!<BR>
> <BR>
> The more famous ones of these paintings were then <BR>
> copied into other media by less famous artists. <BR>
> There was a whole industry there to reproduce <BR>
> such works. See FOR EXAMPLE George S. Lang's <BR>
> "Washington Passing the Delaware":<BR>
> <a href="http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/wash/aa_wash_soldier_2_e.html">http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/wash/aa_wash_soldier_2_e.html</a><BR>
> --> Washington passing the Delaware, evening previous<BR>
> to the Battle of Trenton, Dec. 25th, 1776<BR>
> You can buy that George S. Lang version as a reproduction at Amazon.com:<BR>
> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Washington-passing-Delaware-Reprint-measured/dp/B001FYR7">http://www.amazon.com/Washington-passing-Delaware-Reprint-measured/dp/B001FYR7</a><BR>
> 8I<BR>
> They probably have the Kim & Kim portrait as <BR>
> well, if you rather go for that one, maybe even <BR>
> for Kindle.<BR>
> <BR>
> Like all 19th century American painters, his <BR>
> style closely resembles British late 18th and <BR>
> 19th century academic painting (that of some <BR>
> other painters more resembles French <BR>
> painting--many of the painters of the times were <BR>
> first generation immigrants anyway--such as <BR>
> Hubert Vos, whose portrait of King Kojong you <BR>
> will have seen). Pretty much all of the <BR>
> seascapes, for example, that you see in the de <BR>
> Young, look all very British (I would probably <BR>
> not know they aren't without the identifying <BR>
> labels).<BR>
> <BR>
> The Hicks piece you posted--and all others by <BR>
> Hicks--are interesting because they show some <BR>
> American local identity (vs. their British and <BR>
> French prototypes), if you want to call it that. <BR>
> In spite of the European stylistic adaptations <BR>
> (e.g. of Napoleon in battle depictions), this is <BR>
> after all "folk art," this is done by some local <BR>
> minister, not by court artist or professional <BR>
> artist. Here is a nice large online image of <BR>
> Hick's 1849 version at the Chrysler Museum of Art:<BR>
> <a href="http://www.chrysler.org/education/unit1/hicks2.htm">http://www.chrysler.org/education/unit1/hicks2.htm</a><BR>
> Larger image:<BR>
> <a href="http://www.chrysler.org/education/unit1/unit1_images/hicks_washington.77.1271.">http://www.chrysler.org/education/unit1/unit1_images/hicks_washington.77.1271.</a><BR>
> jpg<BR>
> The way Hicks uses colors and many other details <BR>
> (e.g. the depiction of the horse movements and <BR>
> how he deals with large spaces like the sky etc.) <BR>
> shows that he was not a trained academic artist.<BR>
> <BR>
> What is so interesting is that you are comparing <BR>
> THIS (that is, one of Hicks' versions of <BR>
> "Washington Passing the Delaware" paintings) to <BR>
> the North Korean Kim & wife & little Kim <BR>
> painting. That really totally got me! There are <BR>
> countless 18th and 19th century 'emperor on <BR>
> horseback' paintings, with brown and white horses <BR>
> from Europe and the U.S. Why this painting? There <BR>
> is not even any "son" there, and certainly not <BR>
> his wife (as in the Kim & Kim painting). It is <BR>
> not a battle either; it is the "three generals'" <BR>
> happy family outing at their very own private <BR>
> revolutionary site (Paektu-san). The oil <BR>
> painting's title is "Sunrise at Paektu" (painter <BR>
> Ch'oe Ha-t'aek; published in Chosôn misul <BR>
> nyôn'gam 1991, p. 70; your posted version cuts <BR>
> about 1/4 from the right and from the left). In <BR>
> the Hicks painting there is no visual union of <BR>
> father and son, as in the painting by <BR>
> Ch'oe--father is riding while son points. Rather, <BR>
> in Hicks shows some officer or general pointing, <BR>
> but he is riding another horse. There is no <BR>
> family there. And in a European or American <BR>
> battle depiction one would not exactly expect <BR>
> that. I think the reason you feel that these two <BR>
> paintings can be compared, please correct me if I <BR>
> am wrong, is mostly because of the use of colors <BR>
> and the simplified formal rendering of space: <BR>
> American folk painting is the keyword here. <BR>
> Although one and a half centuries apart from the <BR>
> North Korean painting, it seems to resemble how <BR>
> the North Korean painter used colors and how he <BR>
> dealt with space and backgrounds (or the other <BR>
> way around). It is the 'folky' part that you <BR>
> point to. And as such you are basically making <BR>
> Ch'oe Ha-t'aek a great compliment, as this is <BR>
> exactly the effect he wanted to create here.<BR>
> <BR>
> Looking at North Korean oil paintings from the <BR>
> 1945-1950 period you will find that painters <BR>
> simply continued their colonial-period styles. <BR>
> And there are plenty of wonderful examples there <BR>
> (e.g. Yi K'wae-dae, 1913-1965) how European 19th <BR>
> century academic styles lived on, with a red flag <BR>
> here and there. But not in 1991, in 1991 you <BR>
> won't find any of this anymore. What seems <BR>
> European or American history painting isn't <BR>
> really. From the mid- or late 1960s you see more <BR>
> and more brush and ink painting done the new <BR>
> Chosônhwa style. And the Chosônhwa style is again <BR>
> loaning (in every technical aspect I can see) <BR>
> from late colonial Nihonga (which was then also a <BR>
> tool for propaganda). At this point I might add <BR>
> the same sentence Hyung Il Pai did in her <BR>
> posting: I want to state that this is only my <BR>
> personal opinion and does not reflect the main <BR>
> stream accounts of the development and <BR>
> appreciation of Korean arts. (Not that of South <BR>
> Korean scholars either). This seems like a <BR>
> controversial and/or provoking observation only <BR>
> if you look at this from within the same kimchi <BR>
> pot. Loaning from and building upon--and reacting <BR>
> to--existing earlier styles and techniques is <BR>
> otherwise what art AND art history is all about, <BR>
> and it does not at all indicate any sort of <BR>
> devaluation of the art work to point at such <BR>
> relations. In any case, to continue, Chosônhwa <BR>
> painting had then a strong influence on what <BR>
> happened to oil painting in North Korea. So, by <BR>
> the early 1970s oil painting, the showed many of <BR>
> the same traits Chosônhwa did: bright colors, <BR>
> simple often monochrome treatments of backgrounds <BR>
> etc., showing happy smiling people. By the late <BR>
> 1980s and in the 1990s we see this style <BR>
> completely prevailing over all other styles: oil <BR>
> painting (and other techniques, e.g. acrylic <BR>
> painting) had basically adapted Chosônhwa <BR>
> techniques. You now have a hard time seeing what <BR>
> is brush and ink painting (Chosônhwa) and what is <BR>
> an oil painting, an acrylic, or a painting done <BR>
> in e.g. air brush technique--it all looks like <BR>
> Chosônhwa.<BR>
> In that technical sense North Koreans have <BR>
> succeeded to create a new style (even though <BR>
> mostly build upon Nihonga as a starting point). <BR>
> What you present there in your comparison of <BR>
> Edward Hicks' Washington on horseback depiction <BR>
> with Ch'oe Ha-t'aek Kim family on horeseback <BR>
> painting is therefore more of a coincidental <BR>
> similarity. As far as the technique goes, <BR>
> historically this does not relate (North Koreans <BR>
> did not get that from U.S. paintings); it appears <BR>
> similar because of the folk art aspect in Hicks' <BR>
> painting and the adaptation of Chosônhwa <BR>
> techniques and aesthetics in North Korean oil <BR>
> painting--the outcome has many similarities. We <BR>
> would then be left with the subject matter, but <BR>
> here I see more differences than similarities. <BR>
> However, there are other such North Korean battle <BR>
> scenes that involve horses, and in some of them <BR>
> we find more similarities, but then more to <BR>
> general 19th century academic painting traditions <BR>
> (of depicting battle scenes).<BR>
> <BR>
> Just noticed I have not discussed the variety of <BR>
> versions and how this relates to NK ... will do <BR>
> another time.<BR>
> <BR>
> Best regards,<BR>
> Frank<BR>
> <BR>
> <BR>
> <BR>
> <BR>
> --<BR>
> --------------------------------------<BR>
> Frank Hoffmann<BR>
> <a href="http://koreaweb.ws">http://koreaweb.ws</a><BR>
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