Innate Chihwaseon (Drunken Painter-Saint)

The Joseon Kingdom gave birth to a number of preeminent painters. Legendary artist Ahn Gyeon, for instance, completed “Mongyudowondo,” a painting of paradise, only three days after he heard about Prince Ahnpyeong’s mysterious dream of paradise. Female artist Shin Saimdang began to draw paintings at the tender age of seven without a teacher. Master painter Jeong Seon created Joseon’s unique drawing technique known as the true-view landscape. Talented artist Kim Hong-do was called a “painter-saint.”

But speaking of Joseon-period genius artists, one particular figure stands out. Jang Seung-eop came to sudden prominence in the 19th century art world in Korea and demonstrated his powerful brush strokes filled with inspiration. Even the paintings he casually created off the top of his head became masterpieces the moment of his last brush stroke. Known for “God-given talent,” Owon Jang Seung-eop was, so to speak, a saint who got drunk on the sensation of painting.

Great Talent in Painting

Born in 1843, Jang Seung-eop lost his parents in his childhood and wandered from place to place before settling at the house of Lee Eung-heon, who lived in Hanyang, present-day Seoul. Lee was the son-in-law of Lee Sang-jeok, one of the disciples of famous calligrapher Chusa Kim Jeong-hee. As an interpreter serving the government who traveled to and from the Qing Dynasty of China, Lee owned numerous paintings. Many people would often gather in his house to relish his works of art.

In Lee’s house filled with art pieces, Jang would watch painters and art collectors appreciating the works. One day, he happened to hold a brush. He swung around it and sprinkled Chinese ink to draw a bamboo tree, apricot flowers, orchids and rocks. A fine piece of work was created miraculously, as though it had been God’s will.

Astonished to see the boy’s talent, Lee bought Jang papers, brushes and ink sticks and let him concentrate on painting. With the newfound freedom to display his inborn talent for painting, Jang poured out strong and vivid brushstrokes as if he had been a painter in his previous life, becoming the darling of the art community in an instant.

Winning Fame as a Painter

Jang could barely write his name because he had had no opportunity to receive an education. Once he held a brush, however, he dashed off one stroke of a brush to create drawings featuring gorgeous colors like a splendid panorama—the mountain wriggling like a snake or raging like thunder, rocks with rough texture expressed through multilayered brushstrokes like a mass of clouds and the expressive depiction of the forests lines with smooth down-strokes.

Jang was skilled in various painting genres, including landscapes and figure painting. But his magnanimous, bold yet casual strokes shined particularly in animal paintings. The animals in his paintings, from a chicken pecking at the feed peacefully in a yard with cockscombs in bloom to a hawk ready to swoop down to snatch a rabbit, are quite lifelike, as if they could pop out at any moment.

The dynamic scenes enraptured middle class people, who emerged as a new wealthy class in the 19th century, replacing the collapsing aristocracy at the time. Only a few years after he started painting, Jang became one of the most prominent artists of the time. His fame spread to the royal court, and he drew paintings at King Gojong’s order.

Who can Confine the Genius to Convention?

Unlike previous painters who completed their works after making a draft or practicing, Jang would wield a brush and ink on silk or paper without hesitation to embody exquisiteness. He also hated being restrained by secular affairs or conventions.

He was particularly fond of alcohol and women. When a woman filled his bowl with liquor in a drinking bout, he would draw a painting for her on the spot. This free-spirited man would have felt quite bored and frustrated when he entered the royal palace governed by strict rules.

King Gojong gave him a quiet room in the court and ordered him to paint a royal folding screen. But a rigorous rule that allowed for only two or three cups of liquor once or twice a day proved too stringent for Jang, who eventually ran away from the palace. To him, the reputation as a court painter serving the king was a mere restraint. He never clung to worldly prestige or fame. He roamed freely, depicting what he saw just the way it was in his paintings, before he died in 1897 at the age of 55.

It is uncertain where and how Jang died. He liked to say, “Life and death of a man is like a drifting cloud, and I’d better find some scenic place and hide in there.” Some say he went missing, while others imagine he became a Taoist hermit. Jang felt painting was the only valuable thing in a life which is like a floating cloud. He knew it all too well. The legendary artist lives on in the unhindered, freewheeling strokes of his paintings. It might be fair to say he lived a full, enjoyable life after all.