The artist Jeong Seon (鄭敾) was 36 in 1711 when he painted this unique landscape of Mt. Geumgangsan (now in North Korea), making it the earliest of his dated paintings. This is one of 13 landscapes of Mt. Geumgangsan taken from Jeong Seon’s Album of Paintings of Geumgangsan Mountain, which he produced during a visit to the area in 1710. Jeong went to Mt. Geumgangsan to visit his great friend and strong supporter Yi Byeongyeon (1671-1751, pen-name: Sacheon), who had recently been appointed as magistrate of Gimhwa near Mt. Geumgangsan. Jeong was accompanied by a man with the pen-name “Baekseok,” and he painted numerous different views of Mt. Geumgangsan, also called the Diamond Mountain. This painting presents a bird’s eye view of Naegeumgang, or Inner Mt. Geumgangsan. Jeong seems anxious to demonstrate that he was painting actual views of the mountain, and the overall composition suffers as a result. The principal and auxiliary areas of the painting are difficult to differentiate, and this confused emphasis results in an overall impression of it being somewhat plain and unfocused. The brushstrokes are rather careful and delicate compared to the daring strokes of Jeong Seon’s later paintings. Mt. Geumgangsan was sometimes called “sangak” (霜嶽, translated as “frost mountain”) because its sharp peaks resembled columns of ice, as can easily be seen here in the repetitive jagged white forms. Nonetheless, this painting indicates that Jeong Seon was still searching for his personal style and had not yet mastered the powerful vertical strokes that would later become his trademark. The names above each mountain peak and the clear marking of routes through them show the influence of cartography from the late Joseon era.