Corea or Cho-sen: The Land of the Morning CalmLandor, Arnold Henry Savage
History
Corea or Cho-sen: The Land of the Morning Calm
Landor, Arnold Henry Savage
Korea -- Description and travel
Now it was the turn of his Prime Minister brother, Prince Min. He also
came in full state, with hundreds of servants and followers, hours before
his time; was a most restless model; and, having profited by his
brother's experience, was continually coming over to examine the painting
and reminding me not to forget this and that and the other
thing--generally what was on the other side of his body, or what from my
point of vantage I could not see. This time, however, I had chosen a
three-quarter face pose, and he expressed the fullest satisfaction with
the result, until, going to poke his nose into the canvas, which was
about 4 feet by 3, he began to take objections to the shadows. He
insisted that his face was all perfectly white; whereas I had made
one-half his nose darker in colour than the other; also that there was
the same defect under the chin; his untrained mind being unable to grasp
the fact that the same colour under different lights becomes lighter or
darker in tone. I would have lost my patience with him if I had had any
to lose, but, remaining silent, I smiled idiotically at his observations,
and did exactly the reverse of what he wished me to do. The beautifying
touches having been duly added, and the high lights put in where it
seemed proper that they should go, I summoned the Prince to see the
effect, this time building up a barricade of chairs and tables in front
of the canvas, in order that His Royal Highness might be compelled to
conduct his examination of it at the right distance. This had the desired
effect, and, as he now gazed at it, he found the likeness excellent and
to use his words "just like a living other-self." It seemed to him a most
inexplicable circumstance that when he got his nose close to the canvas
the picture appeared so different from what it was when inspected at the
right distance. This sitting also ended with a feast, and everything
passed off in the best of ways.
The result of this amicable intercourse with the Royal Princes was that
calls had to be duly exchanged according to the rules of Corean
etiquette. Both Princes came again in their state array to call upon me
in person, a privilege which I was told had never before been bestowed on
any Europeans, not even the Diplomatic Agents in the land, after which
upon the following day I proceeded to return their calls.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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