Who they were
Raised unusually well-educated in Gangneung, she won fame for painting, calligraphy, poetry and embroidery designs. She was also the mother of Yulgok Yi I, one of Joseon’s great philosophers.
What they did
She is celebrated for delicate paintings of plants and insects; the grape and grass-and-insect works attributed to her are treasured, though the attributions are traditional. Later Joseon moralists refashioned her into the ideal of the “wise mother, good wife” — a construction that scholars distinguish from the educated artist seen in the sources.
Legacy
In 2009 she became the first woman on a South Korean banknote, the 50,000-won note, while her son Yulgok appears on the 5,000-won note. She remains Joseon’s most famous woman artist, and the subject of a continuing debate about how her image has been used.