The exhibition Corée, le royaume des lettrés (1600-1900) is organised in partnership with Korea University. It offers an immersion in the world of the yangban, the literati elite that profoundly shaped the artistic and material culture of the Joseon kingdom (1392-1910). Through paintings, costumes, ceramics, furniture and everyday objects, it presents the environment in which these scholars lived and moved. It also offers a broad overview of the artistic production of Joseon, punctuated by masterpieces of early Korean painting. The exhibition unfolds from the general to the particular and gives considerable space to ensembles of remarkable works of substantial size, in order to immerse the visitor in the world of Korea at that time. The exhibition presents the many developments that transformed the intellectual and material culture of Joseon over its long history. The territory covered by the Joseon kingdom, as well as its very long duration, are evoked through maps, while its political and social structure is described through documents referring to court rituals. The status of the yangban, based on a social organisation that was both meritocratic and aristocratic, rests on the one hand on access to official posts through examinations inspired by the Chinese model, and on the other on their membership of the nobility. This aspect is the subject of a specific section. Visitors can also discover the interiors in which the yangban lived, through furniture, folding screens, costumes, cabinets of curiosities... Finally, paintings and ceramics make it possible to explore the particular aesthetic that defined this class as well as a certain Korean identity, whose echoes can still be felt today in the land of the Morning Calm.
This exhibition is organised as part of the celebration of the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between France and Korea.