Painting

This painting illustrates one of many games played in Korea during the 1800s. Three boys in traditional Korean attire can be seen playing paeng-ee-dol-li-gi or Korean top spinning (팽이돌리기). While the boys in the red and the purple are whipping their tops, the boy in the green watches on. Paeng-ee-dol-li-gi (팽이돌리기) was a winter game that was played by whipping the top with a whip on the frozen ground, as shown in the image. The hats that two of the boys are wearing were typical winter hats. Some of the lead white paint has blackened over time. A title for the piece and an artist seal appear at the top right. There are 22 other watercolor paintings in the collection illustrating Korean games and rendered by the same artist, Gisan (기산) of Choryang, Korea.