Elizabeth Keith

British artist Elizabeth Keith traveled to East Asian and Southeast Asian countries and depicted the people and culture therein in the early 20th century. She is one of the few Western artists whose oeuvre consists of artworks with Asian subjects only. Keith visited Korea in March 1919 for the first time and worked on watercolors while she was in Korea. Her watercolor works were exhibited in Tokyo in the winter of that year. Watanabe, a publisher who saw Keith’s works at the exhibition, convinced Keith to transform one of her works, the East Gate, Seoul by Moonlight, into a woodblock print. It turned out to be a great success. Two years later, in 1921, Keith had an art exhibition in Seoul, which was the first time a foreign artist had an exhibition in Korea.

 

Her artworks showcase Korean traditions that modernized Koreans no longer practice nowadays. Her woodblock prints and watercolors are beautiful and valuable from both aesthetic and historical viewpoints. Her artistic point of view is full of humanity and compassion, which is well portrayed in her book entitled “Old Korea: The Land of Morning Calm.”  The book includes chapters on customs, people, festivals, clothing, culture, and activities of the Korean people in the early 20th century.