LEOPARD AND MAGPIES, EX ADOLPHE STOCLET COLLECTION

LEOPARD AND MAGPIES', EX ADOLPHE STOCLET COLLECTION
Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392-1897), 19th century. Ink, watercolor, and gouache on silk, mounted on cardboard, with a gold-lacquered wood frame, behind glass. Finely painted with a spotted leopard standing foursquare amid rocks, grasses, and leaves, below two magpies in flight.
Provenance:
From the collection of Adolphe Stoclet, and thence by descent in the Stoclet family. Adolphe Stoclet (1871-1949) was a Belgian engineer, financier, and noted collector. He was born into a family of Belgian bankers and became a director of the Societe Generale de Belgique after his father’s death. He married Suzanne Stevens (1874-1960), the daughter of the art critic, historian, collector, and dealer Arthur Stevens (1825-1909) and niece of the painter Alfred Stevens (1823-1906). The Stoclets were connected with avant-garde art circles in Paris and Vienna, where they met Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956), who designed the Stoclet’s famous Palais in Brussels. Gustav Klimt (1862-1916) painted the murals in its dining room. The Palais Stoclet, today a UNESCO World Heritage site, was the lavish setting to one of the most important eclectic art collections of all times, which included Egyptian and Chinese sculpture, medieval Italian paintings and metalwork, enamels and relics, as well as Byzantine and Pre-Columbian art.
Condition:
Good condition with minor wear, little soiling, creasing, small tears, minuscule losses. The frame with some wear, age cracks, and a minor repair to one corner.
Dimensions: Image size 211 x 114.5 cm, Size incl. frame 220 x 124 cm
Kkachi pyobeom, paintings depicting magpies and leopards, was a prominent motif in the minhwa folk art of the Joseon period. The leopard represents authority and the aristocratic yangban, while the dignified magpie represents the common people. Hence, such paintings were a satire of the hierarchical structure of Joseon's feudal society.
Museum comparison:
Compare a related painting of a leopard and magpie in the Museum of Far Eastern Anitquities, Stockholm.