국립중앙박물관 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF KOREA

Peonies and Butterflies

The work displayed here is the right-hand half of a pair of hanging scrolls. White and red peonies stretch diagonally out from the middle left section of the composition. The swallowtail butterfly and two cabbage butterflies are depicted realistically owing to the influence of nineteenth-century treatises on natural history and encyclopedias. However, the movements of the butterflies are based on standards found in painting manuals.