I purchased this painting in Korea in early 1972. It appears to be watercolor(?) pigment on fabric. Other than that, I know nothing about it, such as when it might have been painted or the artist.

Do we have any authorities here who can offer any information?


The main subject cropped:




The full painting:




The signature(?) and chop:



Thanks for all information.

Wish i could help as members have helped me in the past. Sadly Pacific Rim art and artists are well outside my wheelhouse.
Hope you find the answers you seek.

Thanks.

There are any number of professional art appraisers listed online, but I don’t have any idea if it would be worth going that route only to be told, “Yeah, those paintings were mass production works and are common as dirt.” That seems unlikely in this case, but I have no way of knowing, and I decided to reach out to the forum and its many experts on countless subjects.

Not art connoisseurs, but my wife is Korean, and her best friend is also Korean who speaks and reads/writes Chinese also.

I should have an answer to the name/signature. That’s about all I can do to help.

Once her friend replies, I’ll post the translation of the name.

Thank you.
I thought about trying to puzzle something out using my old Korean dictionary of Chinese characters (if I could find it) or attempting to find something online, but it would obviously be much better to get an actual authority's help.

Paek Sohk. (Phonetically spelled).

Paek means hundred. Sohk means rock.

Basically his name is aged rock. It’s really hard to translate from Chinese to Korean to English.

That’s my wife and her friend’s take on it.

Good luck.

Member OttoSig just got back from living in Korea. He might know someone there who could provide more info.

quote:

Originally posted by Beancooker:
That’s my wife and her friend’s take on it.

Thank you and them. That gives me something to ponder and perhaps pursue further.

One thing I remember very well from my study of the language, Korean has many homonyms that are all pronounced and spelled the same in the Korean alphabet, but whose meanings are different based on their Chinese character roots. As I recall, “paek” (one English transliteration) also means white, and probably others as well that I don’t remember. The un- or less-aspirated “p” sound is also spelled with a “b” in some systems, i.e., “baek.”

There are evidently online sources that will translate Chinese characters from images, and even though something else I remember about Korean use of the characters is that they may not mean the same as they do in Chinese, it may provide some information.

This is a question I’ve wondered about for years, and of course the opportunity I missed was to ask about it when I was in Korea. It was just a painting I liked: too soon old, too late smart.

Thanks again.

I like the painting! I've always been intrigued with Asian art and bought myself several pieces while in Singapore many years ago.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Member OttoSig just got back from living in Korea. He might know someone there who could provide more info.

I've got nothing on the Chinese, I did do some searching today and even had a Chinese Linguist at work look at it, she said she had NO idea what it was.

Beancooker is right in the translation from Korean to English but I have such a small knowledgebase of Hanja that I don't know if that is correct from Chinese to Korean.

100 stone or paek seok is 白石 in traditional Chinese...Could very well be what his wife and friends stated but I couldn't begin to verify.

I'll download a Chinese character app and trace those to see what they are.

Id wager the red one is a company emblem.

ETA: I think the first character is very close to Yi, which would be Ee is Korean or Lee in English, maybe 2nd or third most common last name. I don't know what the second character is.

quote:

Originally posted by OttoSig:
even had a Chinese Linguist at work look at it, she said she had NO idea what it was.

I really appreciate your efforts.

I tried putting an image of the upper character into a Chinese translator, but it wasn't recognized.