Chaekga-Do is a painting depicting books, pottery, stationery, incense burners, and bronzeware placed inside bookshelves.There are also bookshelves full of books, Chaekga-Do is also called 'Chaekgerori' in Korean. Chaekgeori is a higher concept than Chaekkga-Do because it includes not only pictures with bookshelves but also pictures that list objects including books without bookshelves.
It is presumed that Chaekga-Do was first produced by a painter in the late 18th century in response to King Jeongjo's idea to rule the world through books.
In the 19th century, court painter Lee Hyeong -rok (1808~?) was famous for Chaekga-Do. His cdhaekga-do is characterized by a well- structured composition, profound colors, and very delicate expression.
Lee, Hyung-rok changed his name twice : Lee, Eung-rok in 1864 when he was 57 years old and Lee, Taek-gyun in 1871 when he was 64 years old. It is distinctly differentiated in the style of painting.
Then why did they draw Chaekga-Do?
During the Joseon Dynasty, books were considered very important and interest in them was high, In the past, Nobleman had to read a lot of books in order to pass the exam and get ahead in the past, and the knowledge as a literary person accumulated by reading books was underlying the general culture of scholars in the Joseon Dynasty. So, you can often see people reading books in other painting genres, such as fresh paintings and genre paintings.
Chaekga-Do is a painting that represents our culture of loving books.
Most court paintings and folk paintings do not have the painter's optimism, so it is unknown who painted them. However, in chaekga-Do, there are cases where seals are drawn among various objects and expressed lying flat so that the face of the seal is visible. If the purpose was to draw a seal, there would not have been a need to lay it flat, but even when drawing a paint box and several seal, one seal was drawn so that the stamped surface, the face of the seal, was visible.
This is called a hidden seal, or "silent seal." Did the artist want to leave his name to posterity? You can see the interesting and witty customs of Chaekga-Do that can't be seen anywhere else in the painting.
Lee Hyung -rok(1808~1883),who was a court painter, drew a seal with his name engraved on the 9th panel of the Chaekga-Do folding screen. So, it was initially known as an unknown artist , but through a hidden painting, it became known that the artist was Lee Hyeong-rok.
