Ri Am, a representative Korean artist, and his remains
Ri Am is a representative animal painter of 16th century.
He was well-known for his talents of painting flowers, birds and animals, especially dogs and cats. He improved the status of the animal painting in pictorial art remarkably with vivid drawing of the animals always living with humans.
His representative paintings such as “Cat and Puppy”, “Cat on a Tree” and “A Pair of Wild Geese” are still remained.
“Cat on a Tree” and “Cat and Puppy” are a representative pair of scrolls. A cat being chased by an angry puppy has swiftly climbed a tree and the puppy that failed to catch the cat is looking at the top of the tree with his head aslant. At that moment, startled sparrows sitting on the branch flew away. Under the tree another puppy with a bird feather on its mouth is going somewhere without paying any attention to others.
The painting depicts a dramatic scene but all the animals are drawn in a cute and adorable way. It thus gives smile as if it is a world of fairy tales without arising any tension.
The painting clearly reveals the painting style of Ri Am who had a deep understanding of habits and movements of animals through close observation and added a humor to it.
The painting is one of the masterpieces among the animal paintings of the early period of feudal Joson dynasty.
It is common in Ri Am’s paintings to draw flower trees, rocks, bamboos and wild flowers concisely and clearly in the background of the main subject and this added decorative effect to the paintings.
Ri Am enjoyed drawing beautiful color paintings that were rich in national and local sentiment and he created a childlike, cheerful and humorous atmosphere to each painting. Thus, he contributed to opening up a new path in the field of flower, bird and animal painting.
