나혜석 羅蕙錫

Painter and writer · Korea's first woman Western-style painter · Imprisoned for joining the March 1st Movement · Major works: Dancer, Spanish Beach

Life & career

Na Hye-seok (1896–1948) was a painter and writer of the Japanese colonial period, regarded as Korea's first woman painter in the Western style. Her clan seat was Naju and her pen name Jeongwol. She was born in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, the fourth of five children of Na Gi-jeong, who served as magistrate of Siheung and Yongin. Her childhood names were Aji and Myeong-sun.

She graduated at the top of her class from Jinmyeong Girls' High School and in 1913 went to Tokyo to study at the Women's School of Fine Arts, graduating in 1918. While there she published the essay 'The Ideal Woman' (1914) and the short story 'Gyeonghui' (1918). She took part in the March 1st Movement of 1919 and was imprisoned for five months.

In 1921 she held her first solo exhibition of oil paintings in Seoul, and from 1922 she exhibited every year in the Western painting section of the Joseon Art Exhibition, winning prizes and special selections; in 1931 her work was also accepted at the Imperial Art Exhibition in Tokyo. From 1927 to 1929 she travelled around the world with her husband Kim Woo-young and studied painting in Paris for about eight months. Her best-known works include Dancer, painted in Paris (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art), and Spanish Beach.

After her divorce in 1930 she opened a women's art studio in 1933, and in 1934 published 'A Confession of Divorce' in the magazine Samcheolli. Her career as a painter ended after a show of recent small works in 1935, and she died in December 1948 at a Seoul municipal charity hospital.

Descendants

Father Na Gi-jeong; elder brothers Na Hong-seok and Na Gyeong-seok. She had one daughter and three sons with her husband Kim Woo-young

Other 나주 나씨 figures