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Follow the long reed that arches over the egret’s hunched back, then look down at its thin legs and spread toes among the dark, wet strokes of the shore.
An egret walks the shore of a salt marsh thick with reeds. Yang Ki-hun came from Pyongyang, and the Cleveland Museum of Art suggests that the estuary of the Taedong River there may have been where he liked best to watch and sketch water birds. He drew them with a naturalist’s eye, yet kept their old meanings: the egret stands for the scholar’s life withdrawn from the world, and reeds for humility and modesty.
hanging scroll; ink on paper · Overall: 196 x 61 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Egret and Reeds
- Artist
- Yang Ki-hun (Seuk-Eun) (Korean, 1843–1919?)
- Date
- late 1800s
- Medium
- hanging scroll; ink on paper
- Dimensions
- Overall: 196 x 61 cm (77 3/16 x 24 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift from the Collection of George Gund III
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.