history

Choe Puk (1720-1770) was born into a poor peasant family in a rural village as the eldest son.

His courtesy name was Songgi and pen name Chilchil.

He was a man of strong will and pure conscience. His pictures greatly contributed to the development of realistic landscape painting of Korea in the 18th century.

As he was a man of strong character, he never fawned upon the powerful nor drew pictures he was reluctant to paint. According to an anecdote, when a nobleman in authority forced him to draw a picture, Choe refused to do so even by pricking his one eye to become blind.

He was good at drawing landscapes, flowers, birds, animals, stones of fantastic shape and old trees. He especially excelled in landscape.

Among his masterpieces are “Midsummer”, “Mt Kumgang”, “Summer Scenery” and “The Hawk and the Rabbit”.