This research was conducted centering around a picture of “a married couple” as a basic and minimum unit to compose a family. Since the origin of mankind, a couple has existed in any way or type. Thus, pictures of a married couple in certain times imply the example of a couple that the society required.
The oldest couple picture found in Korea is the one drawn in Goguryeo Tomb Murals. In the Goryo Dynasty, Portraits were drawn for King and Queen including royal family and high officials. It is difficult to make a practical confirmation of the example of an ancient couple because of few works left, but it seems to have based on mutual respect between a couple.
The Joseon Dynasty, it is difficult to see a picture showing a married couple in spite of lots of other portraits except some for record of events or genre paintings. Emphasizing Confucian ethic of the Distinction between man and wife, there was inequality requesting the wife one-way dedication for the filial duty to parents and respect to husband. This is known as “Distinction between man and wife” in Samkanghengsildo: Three Bonds in Confucianism or Oryunhengsildo published and distributed many times is described in only ‘A Virtuous Woman Part’.
It was in modern times that family paintings were practically painted. That is, family was regarded as “couple-centered” from a complicated relation of parents, sisters and brothers, and children. At this point, the tie to connect the couple was understanded as affection. The family in the pictures painted in this changing society shows the contradicted family structure and cognition. Both traditional family and modern nuclear family are expressed and mutual relationship or position between the married couple shows multi layers. Even if a couple is painted together, the woman was expressed as a woman reading to imply she is awakened and enlightened with a new knowledge and as a wise-mother and good-wife for a happy family.
And also paintings showing love of a couple increased after experiencing national crisis with poverty and family separation in the period of Japanese occupation and civil war, 6.25. Lee Jungseob imaged a couple’s love as a hen and a cock in his work, 〈A couple(부부)〉, and Chun Kyeongja imaged a couple as snakes in her work, 〈Ecology (생태)〉.
Since 1970’s, rapidly developed modernity and industrialism changed a family from a traditional extended family to a nuclear family. A traditional family began to show various types in family relationship. There appeared international marriages and even man-man couples or woman-woman couples. Such variety was reflected in various images of a couple in paintings.