Grapevine

About the Artwork

July is the season of the ripening deep blue grapes, and also the month when the monsoon season begins in Korea. To the accompaniment of stormy summer wind, grape vines make a spectacular full circle across the surface of this eight-panel folding screen. The artist employed a variety of ink tones to create a sense of swift movement of grapevines amid turbulent storms. Since their first introduction to the Korean peninsula around the 7th century through the Silk Road, grapes were used as artistic motifs. Artists embellished the surface of mother-of-pearl lacquer boxes or blue-and-white porcelain, while scholar-poets composed poems about the luscious sweet sourness of green grapes. By the late 19th century, grapes became the icon of fertility: the fruit grows in large clusters of many individual grapes, evoking the image of a stable clan with many descendants.

Provenance

?–2015: George Gund III [1937–2013], bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art 2015–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Exhibition history

Korean Gallery 236 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (July 10, 2017-January 8, 2018).

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.

Quick Overview

Artist: Choe Seok-hwan (Korean, active first half of 19th century)
Date: early 1800s
Medium: eight-panel folding screen; ink on paper
Dimensions: Image: 100.5 x 345 cm (39 9/16 x 135 13/16 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: Painting
Department: Korean Art
Credit line: Gift from the Collection of George Gund III
Accession no.: 2015.510

Open-access museum record · AT-00009811