Portrait of Yi Jeongbo at his Sixtieth Birthday Party

Korea, Joseon Dynasty (1392−1910)
Ink, color, and gold pigment on silk
Painting: 39½ x 21½ in. (100.3 x 54.6 cm)

Inscription signed by Yi Jeongsong (1692−1759), dated 1753, late Fall

Shown in three-quarter view, the seated subject of the portrait, Yi Jeongbo (1693–1766) was a respected scholar-official during the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) who succeeded in rising to high levels of government despite an earlier political setback for opposing a reigning king’s policies. The commissioned portrait was painted by an unknown court painter on the occasion of Yi Jeongbo’s sixtieth birthday and inscribed by Yi Jongseong (1692–1759), a fellow scholar-official. Yi Jeongbo is dressed simply in a white robe with a red ribbon tied around his waist and a black tanggeon hat woven out of horsehair. The sitter’s long white beard and wrinkles speak to his advanced age and reflects the period attitudes toward portraiture of distinguished men, which valued verisimilitude to capture facial features that were exemplary of the individual’s character. While the simple palette of the painting suggests the subject’s modesty, this work is the only confirmed example of Joseon portraiture that uses gold pigment to color the iris of the eyes. The balance between subtlety and minute but nonetheless sumptuous detail evokes the fine balance between the scholarly ideal of humility and the celebratory occasion for this portrait.