Kim Jeonghui and His Companions

About the exhibition

The museum opens this theme display with a simple idea: the things and friends we love give us strength to live. It reads the life of Kim Jeonghui, known by the pen name Chusa and described by the museum as a leading scholar and artist of 19th-century Joseon, through the people around the artist.

Letters, calligraphy and paintings, 31 groups and 38 objects in all, fill the Painting and Calligraphy Gallery on the second floor. The museum notes that Kim wrote a superb hand and was absorbed in tracing the origins of characters on ancient stone steles. The companions in the title range from scholars in Joseon and Qing China to learned monks with whom Kim discussed Buddhism, and the jungin, or middle-class, intellectuals and artists who were always close by.

One caution: the Treasure-designated orchid painting named in the listing was on view only until September 13, so it is no longer in the room. Entry is free.

About the artist

Kim Jeonghui (1786–1856) was born into the Gyeongju Kim clan, a distinguished family, and held government office up to the junior second rank until the age of 55. About ten years in exile followed, and Kim spent the final years in Gwacheon, according to the National Museum of Korea.

Sources: National Museum of Korea: Kim Jeonghui and His Companions