Elizabeth Keith’s Korea As It Was

This book is a valuable collection that brings together paintings by Elizabeth Keith, a Western artist who captured the fading sceneries of the old Joseon in vivid colors, along with anecdotes and explanations. This is based on the book by Keith, Old Korea: The Land of Morning Calm, published in 1946 in the United Kingdom, with a rich addition of a total collection of Keith's Korea-inspired paintings and research by Professor Young-dahl Song, who specializes in Keith's artworks as a collector and scholar. It took him almost 30 years to complete his Keith collection.

Despite her world acclaim, Elizabeth Keith was little known in Korea. We can have a brighter picture of the late Joseon Dynasty years, as she photographically painted these sceneries with in-depth understanding and deep affection for the Korean culture and Koreans. This book digitalized 85 artworks by Keith on Korea, from watercolor paintings to woodcut prints in super high-definition quality, and also printed them on quality pieces of paper that are fit for art brochures in order to present them in forms that are as original as possible. Also, the stories and explanations told by Professor Young-dahl Song, who has studied Keith's life and artworks for several decades, offer further understanding of readers.

By publishing this English-language book, which redefines the relations between Keith and Korea in the richest way possible, readers in the English-speaking territory can now enjoy a look into the old landscape of Korea, which was loved by Keith but being forgotten. Readers can also enjoy appreciating Keith's exotic paintings that were reborn in the best-ever color and quality.

About Elisabeth Keith

Born in the Scottish town of Aberdeenshire, Elizabeth Keith traveled to Japan in 1915, the beginning of a nine-year stay in a number of Asian countries. She found herself deeply attracted to Asia’s beauty and culture. Keith visited Korea several times starting in 1919 and worked on watercolor paintings of the Korean culture and daily lives. It was also in 1919 when she held the first-ever exhibition of paintings on Korea in Tokyo and met Watanabe Shozaburo, who led the shin-hanga (New Prints) movement. This encounter led her to start working on woodblock prints. She had a prolific career as a woodblock print artist, mainly working at Watanabeʼs studio. In her later years, she assumed control of the whole process of etching and woodblock prints.
In 1921, as the first Western-born artist to capture Asian subjects, Keith held an exhibition in Seoul, followed by another in 1934. From the 1920s, she also often held exhibitions in the United States and Europe. Her artworks are in the collections of several top-tier museums and galleries worldwide. Korea happens to be a subject that is most frequently visited in her artworks, and it was those pieces that earned her acclaim. In this sense, it is only fair to say that Keith and Korea have a special relationship. She was also an author of books including Old Korea (1946), Eastern Windows (1928), and Grin and Bear It (1917).