Detail View: The AMICA Library: Landscape of the Four Seasons

Korean name, Yi Si-mun.

The Korean monk-painter Li Su-mun remains an enigmatic historical figure whose work embraces several distinct painting styles. Moreover, his residency in Japan enabled him to incorporate elements of Japanese composition and painting technique into his paintings. Any assemblage of works bearing his seal thus appears to be the product of not one artist, but rather two or three distinct individuals.

This pair of screens represents the artist?s most important composition in this format, which is smaller than the average Japanese by?bu (folding screen). The idealized landscape is unlike any in Japan, although the incorporation of scenes identifying the passage of the four seasons (viewing from right to

left) was a popular theme in medieval Japanese ink painting.

The most notable Korean features employed by Li Su-mun in these by?bu include the use of stark, contrasting ink washes, and bold landscape forms, thereby increasing the visual impact of the narrative panorama.