The artist Jeong Seon (1676–1759) created landscape paintings using his own realistic or ‘true-view’ style. The Geumgangjeondo (‘Complete Landscape of Geumgang Mountains’) depicts all 12,000 peaks of the mountain by condensing the landscape of the inner area of the range into a circular composition using the bird’s eye view technique. I heard about Geumgang Mountain many times from my father and grandmother who were from Pyeongyang. I found ‘Geumgangjeondo’ in the catalogue of the Kansong Art Museum, written by its director Wan Choi, while looking for materials in preparation for an exhibition in 2010. I reexamined the meaning of ‘true-view’ landscape, and contemplated the sincerity of the master who honestly expressed his feelings, disregarding the traditional conventions of the literati, the style of the aristocracy.
* Longing for Geumgang Mountain
