Fig. 26. Paik Nam- soon (백남순 白南舜, 1904–1994). Paradise (낙원), 1936. Eight- panel folding screen; oil on canvas, 681/8 × 1461/2 in. (173 × 372 cm). National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Lee Kun-H ee Collection Ko Hui- dong is widely referred to as Korea’s 昀椀rst oil this long, thin hanging scroll, the natural elements have painter. He went to Japan in 1909. Although he enrolled in solidity—the trees grow out of a level portion of 昀椀rm the Western painting department at the Tokyo School of ground and the peach- colored mountain is a vertical Fine Arts, becoming its 昀椀rst Korean graduate, he eventu- mass that recedes back. With his familial connections, ally returned to ink painting in the 1920s. In works such 昀氀uency in several languages, diverse training, and active as Autumn Landscape, from 1931, he integrated the participation in art societies and associations, Ko was techniques of seoyanghwa (Western- style painting) very in昀氀uential in Korea, and his style choices would be and dongyanghwa (Eastern- style painting) (昀椀g. 25). In used to champion (then and now) 昀椀rst “modern” and 22