PAINTERS from South Korea

Top 2

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary South Korean Painters of all time. This list of famous South Korean Painters is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Sin Yun-bok (b. 1758)

With an HPI of 54.69, Sin Yun-bok is the most famous South Korean Painter.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages on wikipedia.

Sin Yun-bok (Korean: 신윤복; 1758–1813), better known by his art name Hyewon, was a Korean painter of the Joseon period. Like his contemporaries Danwon and Geungjae, he is known for his realistic depictions of daily life in his time. His genre paintings are distinctly more erotic than Danwon's, a fact which contributed to his expulsion from the royal painting institute, Dohwaseo. Painting was frequently a hereditary occupation in the Joseon period, and Hyewon's father and grandfather had both been court painters. Together with Danwon and the later painter Owon, Hyewon is remembered today as one of the "Three Wons" of Joseon-period painting.

2. Gim Hongdo (1745 - 1806)

With an HPI of 53.27, Gim Hongdo is the 2nd most famous South Korean Painter.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Kim Hong-do (Korean: 김홍도, 1745–c. 1806 to 1814) was a Korean painter during the Joseon dynasty. He is mostly remembered for his depictions of the everyday life of ordinary people, in a manner analogous to painters of the Dutch Golden Age. He was also widely known by his art name Danwon (단원). Active during the reign of King Yeongjo and King Jeongjo, he made a profound change in Joseon painting style. By boldly introducing Western painting methods that appeared to have been learned through the Qing Dynasty, he introduced a technique that revealed perspective through jokes and contrasts of colors.