Korean painting “A Cattle Drover” (31x51cm) was made by Kim Tu Ryang (1696-1763), a realistic painter in the early and middle of the 18th century.
“A Cattle Drover” is a painting well known not only to the Korean people but to the people in other countries. It causes laugh and intimacy of onlookers.
Seeing the painting one day, President Kim Il Sung said that it was a very interesting painting and the cattle drover fell fast asleep.
Saying that one foreigner who had enjoyed the Korean painting “A Cattle Drover” at the Korean At Gallery asked the Korean visitor to his country if the Korean cattle drover was still asleep, Chairman Kim Jong Il said a painting that the people have a long memory of and want to see again is a real famous one.
The Korean painting “A Cattle Drover” depicting a cattle drover who is fast asleep under a willow where he bound his ox at a break of daylight in mid-summer is the most famous painting depicting the real life.
Through the depiction of the hero, the painting shows, in a sincere and interesting way, the hard life of peasants who were subject to feudal exploitation and oppression at that time and the mental world of the diligent and humble people who got strong in such life.
In the painting the drover is fast asleep at rest, lying on the grass under the shadow of the willow whose branches are drooping. His body tanned due to the hard work, shaggy hair, firmly closed mouth, eyes whose outer sides are bent up, and the image of him who felt fast asleep with his brawny right arm on his forehead, his stomach bare and his belt loose—these make one feel as if his stomach went up and down lightly and one hear him snoring, which causes sympathy and intimacy and make one smile in spite of himself.
The image of the ruminating ox drawn vividly with precise sketch and skilled lines in the middle of the painting depicts explicitly mild and strong temper and characteristics of the Korean draught ox and assiduousness of the cattle drover who takes good care of it.
Integrated depiction of the stump of willow, its branches nodding in the wind and grass on which the drover is lying under it conveys realistically the sentiment under the shadow of the willow and the surroundings apparently smelling a sweet earthy smell. Vividly backing a part of life of the drover who takes a rest for a short time when the ox is eating grass, the painting adds more sentiment of rural life.
Like this the Korean painting “A Cattle Drover” which depicts vividly the rural life is a proud heritage of the Korean nation’s fine arts as a realistic genre picture.
