Bamboo

Little is known about the life of Bak Jae-hyeon. His depiction of wind-tossed branches of bamboo synthesizes masterful brush technique, poetry, and individual expression. Neo-Confucian scholars of Joseon Korea—who like their counterparts in China and Japan were amateur artists painting for relaxation and not for sale in the art market—aspired to these qualities when undertaking a new painting. The artist’s inscription written in classical Chinese, the diplomatic language of the Korean court, reads:

Autumn arrives early as the clear wind sweeps the ground; the burning sun travels across the sky and nobody realizes that it's already high noon.

This painting's imagery well captures the traditional association in East Asian symbolism of bamboo with loyalty and endurance due to the plant’s ability to bend in natural adversity without yielding and breaking. This theme is subtly reinforced by the seasonal inscription–cold wind on a hot summer day—that obliquely alludes to the precarious political situation of Korea at the time in the face of foreign intervention. The work dates just two years before the end of the Korea's last royal dynasty following the country’s annexation by Japan and the onset of the Colonial Period (1910–1945).