국립중앙박물관 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF KOREA

Falconry

This genre painting depicts a scene of falconry, where a falcon is released in the mountains to hunt pheasants. In the late Joseon period, literati regarded falconry as a spirited and gallant pastime, befitting a true man, making it both a popular activity and a frequent subject in paintings. At the center of the composition is a man on horseback, presumably the host of the hunt, surrounded by attendants, hunters, and hunting dogs. The two men standing on the bottom right are called eungsa (鷹師), and they appear entirely focused on the movements of the falcon and the pheasant.