Hanbok

1942 April issue of "The Light of the Peninsula".

Illustration by Elizabeth Keith, <a widow>, 1919

This illustration was a portrait of a widow Keith had encountered while traveling along the north part of countryside. She had written a description of the widow in conjunction with the illustration. She wrote,

"This woman, with an expression which exhibits sadness and gentleness, is from the north part of Korea. She was recently released by The Japanese Empire prison where she was tortured. Marks originated from the tortures are still left on her body and her only son was also capture by the Japanese police officers at the March 1st movement and the day of meeting her son again is uncertain. This drawing was made during the summer. The widow was adorned in traditional and wide creamed colored skirt and underneath the skirt, she wore loose pantaloons. A jacket (저고리) she was wearing was made out of a kind of silk gauze and despite the hot weather, she wrapped her hair in a headscarf. I'm told wearing a headscarf is a custom of Northern people. Her hair was abundant and long and she had braided and piled them on top of her head."

Source: 

Lee Choong Hyul, Reading scenery of modern Korea through pictures, Korea: Kim Yong Sa, 2011

Illustration by Elizabeth Keith, <a maiden of the Min family>, 1920-1930.

Elizabeth Keith, 1887-1956

Born in Scotland and came to Japan in 1915 to visit her sister who was married to an English publisher working in Tokyo.

Motivated by beautiful and exotic scenery, she lifted a brush and began painting. Even though she was mostly active in Japan,

compelled by curiosity, she had traveled to China, Philippine and Korea and captured the beauty of each country in her watercolor illustrations. 

She visited Korea for the first time in 1919, and stayed for the duration of 6 months. When she came, she did not just stay in Seoul

but traveled to many other cities including PyongYang. From this journey, she had left many valuable drawings that depicted the lives of Korean people

at the time of political turmoil. According to Korean Archival source, she had produced about 66 illustrations. Later around 1940, she assembled writings and illustrations she had produced during her stay in Korea and published a book called 'Old Korea'.

Picture Source:

 Taegon Kim(1822-1846) also known as St. Andrew Kim Taegon, was Korea's first native born Catholic priest.

Both of his parents were converted Christian, but due to their noble status (Yangban) they were executed for defying Confucianism.

Baptized at 15, he studied at a seminary in the Portuguese colony in Macau, China. After completing his study, he was ordained by

the French Bishop Jean Joseph Ferréol in Shanghai.He then came back to Korea and devoted his life to evangelism. 

Eventually, he was captured by the government and he was executed at the tender age of 24.

Picture source:

    권오창, 조선시대 우리옷, 현암사 1998.