One Autumn DayLee In-sung

One Autumn Day is a large painting that represents Lee In-sung’s world of art. Lee was a child prodigy who displayed superior talent from his youth. In this leisurely landscape of a field on an autumn day, the colors of a half-naked woman and the red and yellow field appear in contrast against the blue sky in the background. As a result, a primitive vitality boldly governs the canvas. Such a folksy subject matter and color palette are more of an exotic interpretation based on an Orientalist view rather than actual Korean landscape. Lee painted a figure that is one with nature imbued by romantic and indigenous sentiments, but the painting also reveals a limitation that artists from that time had because he described life in a rural area as a pure, primitive condition by othering it.

1934
Oil on canvas
96*161.4