Portrait of Daewongun

In the upper right corner of the screen, there is an ink book titled ‘Portrait of Daewongun,’ suggesting that the main character of the portrait is Heungseon Daewongun Lee Ha-eung (1820-1898), the father of King Gojong. The portrait is a full body image, but it is out of proportion. His face, with his two sunken eyes, a long beard down to his chest, and white hair everywhere, looks a bit haggard. In contrast to the detailed face, the clothing is briefly depicted, and the cap and purple color are exotic. Daewongun was taken to Qingguk in 1882 as the head of the Imogun Rebellion and spent three years in Baoding.

Conservation Story
After purchasing <portrait of daewongun> in the 1960s, the museum repaired some damaged screens. After that, the pigment fell off the silk base and many stains appeared, which led to the Busan Metropolitan City-designated cultural property repair and maintenance project in 2020. As a result of the preliminary investigation before the preservation treatment, the conservation scientist estimated that part of the screen was cut off during the lengthy work of scrolls and frames during repairs in the past, and the threads of the base material were twisted. In addition, the portrait was placed on an acrylic plate and taken through light from below, and the traces of the two past papers were clearly visible on the chalkboard placed on the background of the picture. As a result of analyzing the components through X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF) and microscopic observation, white was light white, red was cinnabar, green was stone green, blue was seokcheong, gray was mixed with light white and ink. It appears to have been colored differently. In addition, it was possible to clearly observe the fine border lines of the portrait as a result of infrared imaging.