(b 1745; d 1821). Korean painter. He was appointed a member of the Bureau of Painting (Tohwaso) and also served the court in a military position. Yi was a friend of Kim hong-do (see KIM (iv), (1)), the foremost artist in the Bureau at the time. Although Kim is more famous and his work is held in higher esteem, Yi’s work shows an accomplished skill and refinement as well as an unusually wide range of styles. Until his sixties Yi focused on landscape painting, for example Mountains and Rivers without End (handscroll, ink and light colours on silk, h. 441 mm; Seoul, N. Mus.; see 1979–81 exh. cat., no. 238), which is painted in the style of the Chinese ORTHODOX SCHOOL and is regarded as one of the finest masterpieces of the end of the Choson period (1392–1910). Towards the end of his life Yi painted genre scenes, for example A Gathering of Four Friends (see fig.), in which he used particularly expressive, bold brushstrokes contrasted with sharp, well-crafted calligraphy. The scene depicts a gathering of four scholars (one of whom is the artist), a theme popular in Chinese painting; it is perhaps for this reason that the scholars are shown in Chinese dress. Another of his representative late works is Chatting near Pine Forest Valley (ink and light colours on paper, 243*336 mm; Seoul, N. Mus.). Yi often used a complex ho that described him as a Daoist, an old pine tree and a flowing stream: Kosong Yusu Kwandoin.

• Yi In-mun