(b Kaesong, Kyonggi Province, 1758). Nephew of (1) Kim Ung-hwan. He reached the official rank of sagwa and excelled in landscape painting, portraying many scenic spots in and around Seoul. One of his best-known works is Mt Tobong (album leaf, ink and light colours on paper, 366*537 mm; Seoul, priv. col.; see 1984 exh. cat., no. 252, p. 213). There is a certain roughness in his brushstrokes as if to suggest that the painting was produced very quickly on the spot. The strong, broad strokes in wet black ink for the surfaces of rocks and mountains and the slashed horizontal lines for tree tops are reminiscent of the manner of Chong Son. The shapes of distant mountains and the loose lines used to render them resemble those of Kim Ung-hwan, his adopted father (see (1) above), while some texture strokes resemble the peculiar brush manner of Kim Hong-do. Kim Sok-sin’s originality can be seen in his composition, in the use of triangular and diamond-shaped dots, and most of all in the smeared spots scattered liberally on the ground and mountains. Some of his landscapes include figures. In Boating Scene (album leaf, ink and light colours on paper, 316*469 mm; Seoul, priv. col.; see 1984 exh. cat., no. 253, p. 213) he placed in the centre two boats of scholar-officials enjoying a leisurely river cruise, although he clearly lavished more attention on the feathery brushstrokes of the leaves in the foreground and the broad, rectilinear brushstrokes for the rocky cliff formation in the background.

Part of the Kim (iii) family

• Kim (iii) Sok-sin
  • Kim (iii)