Scholars Strolling by the Waterfall

Art Historical Context

This delicate album leaf, *Scholars Strolling by Waterfall*, captures a moment from Korea's Joseon dynasty (1392–1910), 1650. Created by unidentified artist using ink and color on silk, the intimate 17¾ × 11⅜-inch format was ideal for personal albums—collectible treasures flipped through by scholars and collectors. The medium's luminosity and fine texture allowed for subtle washes and precise lines, evoking the misty spray of a cascading waterfall and the graceful figures of robed men wandering its base. In Joseon Korea, a Confucian society dominated by yangban scholar-officials, such scenes ...