Bird on a Blossoming Rose Branch Eyeing a Bee

A title slip mounted under the silk-covered mat attributes this painting to Kim Sik, a statement that accords with the impressed seals. Skilled at landscape depictions but best known for his representations of oxen, Kim Sik came from a prominent family of painters and was the grandnephew of Kim Che (active 1540), one of sixteenth-century Korea's most famous painters of birds and flowers. The genre of bird-and-flower painting arose in China during the Northern Song period (960-1127) and remained popular through succeeding dynasties; it spread to Korea early in the Chosŏn (1392-1911) dynasty and to Japan in the Muromachi period (1392-1568). Chinese painters tended to depict birds in color, while Korean and Japanese artists preferred to render them in monochrome ink. The hard-edged washes used to portray the birds and rose leaves, in this leaf attests to Kim Sik's mastery of brush and ink. Native to China, roses appear only occasionally in Chinese paintings; by contrast, they occur with some frequency in Korean and Japanese works. Gold-flecked paper enjoyed a measure of popularity among Chinese literati artists of the late Ming (1368-1644) and early Qing (1644-1911) periods; it sparked interest among Korean painters of the mid-Chosŏn period and claimed widespread popularity by the nineteenth century. Although they had employed a variety of decorated papers at least since Heian times (794-1185), Japanese artists seldom used this type of lightly flecked paper. Only occasionally used by Chinese painters, tinted papers enjoyed a vogue in Korea throughout the Chosŏn dynasty. Such colored papers seldom were dyed during manufacture; rather, they were tinted with ink washes--generally pale gray or blue--after manufacture but before painting.