The Grand Congratulaotry Ceremony of the Festive Royal Wedding of King Heonjong

The folding screen is a court documentary painting produced in 1844 to commemorate the marriage between King Heonjong (1827-1849) and Queen Hyojeong (1831-1903). The King held a grand festive ceremony at Sungjeongjeon Hall in Gyeonghuigung Palace and received congratulations from all the civil and military officials in the government. The screen has a total of eight panels with the first panel containing the writing to announce the ceremony, and with the eighth panel written the names of twenty-five Royal Spokesmen, including their office titles, birth year, and so on. As such, it is believed that these spokesmen took the lead in producing this folding screen, and copies of the screen were distributed to those officials whose names appear on the screen. The remaining six panels have Injeongjeon Hall in Changdeokgung Palace, the Eastern Palace, as the background and illustrate the scene of the grand congratulatory ceremony.

It represents a state wedding via a massive composition, brilliant colors, and an elaborate illustration and effectively portrayed the festive atmosphere of a royal wedding in the nineteenth century. The painting has Injeongjeon Hall as the center with buildings running parallel in an orderly fashion at an angle on both sides of it. What is more, it is notable that the ears, eyes, noses, and mouths of the people on the painting are not drawn, the lines used for the outlines and contours are for most part stumpy and vary in thickness.