PhotographsKorean19th century

Three Young Korean Women Wearing Traditional Robes, Sitting on Mats,and Preparing to Pound Cloth

c. 1857-1874

Description

The photograph depicts three young Korean women wearing traditional robes and seated outdoors. The women seemingly are two aristocratic women and one attendant; the aristocratic women perhaps are a mother (at the viewer's right) and a daughter (at the left). A roll of cloth occupies the center of the scene; each of the aristocratic women holds a slender wooden club for beating the cloth. Each woman sits on a woven bamboo mat; the bamboo mats rest on a large, coarsely woven mat (of straw?). The women's shoes appear at the front edge of the large mat, nearest the viewer.

Classification

Photographs

Technique

Albumen silver print

Medium

Albumen silver print

Culture

Korean

Period

Chosŏn dynasty, 1392-1910

Century

19th century