Old House of Chang Ucchin

This is the house where Chang Ucchin (1917–1990), one of Korea's first generation of Western-style painters, spent his final years. Squeezed between apartment blocks in Mabuk-dong, Yongin, it keeps a late-Joseon Gyeonggi farmhouse alongside a Western-style house the painter designed himself from a house in one of his own paintings. It was registered as National Registered Cultural Heritage in 2008 under the name "Yongin Jang Uk-jin House" and is now looked after by a foundation set up by his family.

A hanok the painter made his own

Chang lived and painted here from 1986 until his death. The hanok follows the typical Gyeonggi layout – main quarters, guest quarters and a storeroom arranged in a square open on one side, the main and guest wings each only about 46 m² – and Chang repaired it himself to use as both studio and home. Stone and tiled walls wrap round a courtyard with pine trees and a stone lantern, and time seems to move differently from the apartment blocks next door. Part of the hanok is now a tea room called Jibunheon, where you can sit with a cup and look out over the yard.

A house that walked out of a painting

Behind the hanok stands a two-storey red-brick house. Chang designed it himself, based on the brick house in his 1953 painting Scene with a Car. The black roof, red brick and front door flanked by windows look just as they do in the picture, and comparing the two is half the fun. It has one basement floor and two above ground, about 247 m² in all, and is now used as an exhibition space. There is also a small gift shop on the hanok side.

The painter

Born in 1917 in Yeongi, South Chungcheong, Chang studied at the Imperial Art School in Tokyo and taught at Seoul National University's College of Fine Arts from 1954 to 1960. After leaving the post he moved his studio to quiet places such as Deokso and Suanbo to devote himself to painting, and this Mabuk-dong house was the last of them. True to his own words, "I am simple", Chang painted simple subjects – trees and houses, the sun and moon, magpies and children – in small, warm compositions. He is counted with Lee Jung-seob and Kim Whanki among the generation who shaped modern Western-style painting in Korea. His last works were painted in this house. The separate Yangju City Chang Ucchin Museum of Art in Yangju (Tuesday–Sunday 10:00–18:00, closed Mondays) is the place to see more of his work.

Tripto tips

• Time needed: about an hour for the hanok, the brick house and a break in the tea room.
• Opening: generally 11:00–17:00, closed on Mondays. Entry is listed as free, but arrangements can change, so check before you go.
• Getting there: about 1.4 km, or a 20-minute walk, from Guseong Station on the Suin-Bundang Line and GTX-A.
• Etiquette: this is a quiet house cared for by the painter's family. Where rooms are closed, look from outside, and keep your voice down.
• Combine it with: Yongin Hyanggyo, a Confucian school about 600 m away, for a short walk through old Mabuk-dong.