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Gathering of government officials

ca. 1551
Not on view
Written by Jeong Sa-ryong (1491–1570), a distinguished poet, calligrapher, and official, the inscription identifies the depicted scene as a gathering of sixty-year-old men who joined the civil service around the same time. For this reason, it belongs to the Joseon painting genre known as gyehoedo. Mirroring Jeong’s vivid description of camaraderie, the get-together (lower right) is rendered with unusual detail, showing the colleagues with plentiful food and drink, cushions, books, writing implements, and many attendants.

As is typical of gyehoedo, though the gathering is the reason for the painting, the figures are diminutively placed within an ideal landscape. It is an image about not only social interaction but also communion with nature.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 작자미상 같은 해에 태어난 관리들의 친목 모임 조선
  • 作者未詳 同庚契會圖 朝鮮
  • Title: Gathering of government officials
  • Artist: Unidentified artist
  • Period: Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
  • Date: ca. 1551
  • Culture: Korea
  • Medium: Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
  • Dimensions: Image: 51 x 26 3/4 in. (129.5 x 67.9 cm)
    Overall with mounting: 82 1/2 x 33 1/4 in. (209.6 x 84.5 cm)
    Overall with knobs: 82 1/2 x 36 in. (209.6 x 91.4 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Acquisitions Fund, and The Vincent Astor Foundation and Hahn Kwang Ho Gifts, 2008
  • Object Number: 2008.55
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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