Pure Collectibles along Scholar’s Window: Collection of Painting and Calligraphy by Park Ju-bin an Official from Yiwangjik

Paying scholarly attention to Park Ju-bin (朴胄彬, 1882~1931), who has served Yiwangjik (王李職) or the Office of the Yi Royal Family, this essay examines how the Office facilitated appreciations of, and patronage for, painting and calligraphy; and seeks to understand the arthistorical significances of cultural exchanges that distinguished individuals of different social standings carried out with painting and calligraphy in the Japanese colonial period.In technical charge of royal rituals and ceremonies, Park Ju-bin has closely served the Yi Royal Family members for nearly thirty years from various posts of Gungnaebu (宮內府, Council of the Royal Household) and later Yiwangjik. Deeply interested in painting and calligraphy, Park produced an album of the ink-brush arts under the title Seochang cheonggong (書牕 淸供). The compilation album (translatable as “Panoply of Pure Collectibles along Window of a Scholar’s Study”) is based on what Park has collected from a total of sixty eminent individuals – including politicians, scholars, and professional artists – with whom he has established contact for the duration of his public service (1910~1930). They consist mostly of Park’s fellow officials or renowned figures from political and academic spheres, the membership suggesting Park’s high reputation and social status. In particular, the paintings in the album were primarily by artists affiliated to Seohwa misulhoe (書畫美術會, Painting and Calligraphic Art Association) or Seohwa hyeopoe (書畫協會, Society of Painting and Calligraphy). Probably Park has prioritized to collect works by members of the prestigious art organizations: for example, the painters of the Association and the Society enjoyed royal patronage of Yiwangjik—by the will of King Sunjong (純宗, 1874~1926; r. 1907~1910) and his brother Yeongchinwang (英親王, 1897~1970)—and constituted the mainstays of art productions for the royal house.Comprised of paintings and calligraphy by Park’s associates of social importance, the Seochang cheonggong provides a glimpse into the breadth of the artists’ activities of the early twentieth century as well as into an enthusiastic audience who admired and collected their artworks. Given the scanty of materials offering a general view on the art world of the period nor a wide command over contemporary public perception of modern artists, the album Seochang holds a profound significance since the involved artists include not only those who exercised a leadership in the community of painters and calligraphers of the time but also those of bureaucratic origin whose artistic careers await further synthetic studies. The album discloses a preference for traditional subjects and conventional styles: perhaps the conservatism to likings of Royal households or of high-ranking officials. These various traits of this album combine to show that Park represents the art collectors dealing with a complexity of issues such as the continuation of the royal art and patronage, the roles of bureaucrats in art, and art appreciations and collections over the transitional epoch especially when the innovative were steadily making inroads into the traditional.