The crane, with its elegant figure, has been used to convey a variety of images, including that of a sacred bird symbolizing longevity, good fortune and the world of immortals; and that of a hermit or recluse. The crane has appeared in paintings since the Tang Dynasty and was a favorite motif in both court paintings and scholar paintings during the Ming Dynasty. It was during this period that the combination of a pair of cranes and a pine tree or bamboo became standardized as a form. In Korea, ink paintings of cranes created for pleasure gradually became more prevalent in the mid-Joseon period, with most pictures composed of a solitary crane against a background of pine, bamboo or plum. Several famous artists of the time, including Lee Jing (李澄), Lee Sin-heum (李信欽) and Jo Ji-un (趙之耘), also produced crane paintings.
The late-Joseon period can be considered a golden age of crane painting, with cranes appearing not only as exclusive subjects but also as auxiliary sources of scenery in various other genres of painting. Demand for crane paintings is believed to have increased from the 18th century onwards, in conjunction with a growing trend for capturing wild cranes and raising them domestically as pets. Crane paintings from this period can be broadly divided into four categories. Pine-and-crane paintings continued the tradition of earlier years while increasing the proportion accounted for by landscape scenery; “Plantain-and-crane” paintings, which borrowed imagery from the Tangshi Huapu (唐詩畵譜, “Paintings of Tang Period Poems”), also appeared occasionally. The historical “story painting” genre is represented by “setting the crane free” (放鶴圖) works, which take as their theme the retirement of Northern Song poet Lin Bu (林逋). When it came to the “poetry painting” form, Tang poet Li Yuan (李遠)’s Shihe (失鶴, “Lost Crane”) was a favorite subject poem. The “sea rocks-and-cranes” genre emerged as a new form, depicting a view onto a seascape featuring coastal rocks and a herd of cranes.
The symbolism projected into these crane paintings is complex, but they are striking for their images of Taoist cranes and hermits. Jeong Seon (鄭敾) and Kim Hongdo (金弘道) can be cited as artists who led a trend of extending the realm of the crane painting through mastery of the abundant resources of the painting world of their time. Kim Hong-do interacted with the poets of the Baektap School (白塔詩派), who were unusually interested in cranes. Kim not only left crane pictures of all kinds but even took the lead in creating new forms of his own. He habitually created an original world in his paintings that hovered on the boundary between free style (寫意) and formal resemblance (形似); his crane paintings, too, serve to confirm this talent. The depiction of the crane in such a variety of ways is thought to have occurred not only under the influence of traditional crane images, but also due to the fact that the crane was considered a familiar creature due to the culture of raising it as a pet.