Origin of Lee Quedae’s Knowledge of Artistic Anatomy

Art in medicine, especially in anatomy, is the creative expression of the structural form of life, specifically life as manifested in human anatomy. Artists and anatomists together produced images of the body that combined medical knowledge and an artistic vision. In Korea, the pioneer of artistic anatomy was Lee Quede (1913–1965). During the Korean War (1950-1953), in the Geoje prisoner of war camp, he produced anatomical drawings and notes about the human body to teach artistic anatomy to his fellow refugee Lee Ju-yeong. Human anatomy, physiognomic differences among races, and phrenology are explained in those drawings. His drawing notes relied upon his own memories of what he had learned at Teikoku Art School in Japan, where he obtained knowledge on artistic anatomy from Nishida Masaaki (1894–1961). Seventy-four drawings and their explanations were produced. The table of contents was ordered starting from body proportions, followed by the skeleton, the muscles, and the head. The essential forms, proportions and movement were included. In École Supérieur des Beaux Arts in France, Kume Geichiro (1866–1934) was a pupil of Mathias Duval (1844–1907) and Paul Richer (1849–1933). In Teikoku Art School, Kume lectured on art anatomy using the books written by Duval and Richer. Kume handed over his lectures to Nishida, and Lee Quede learned from Nishida. Thereafter, Lee Quede’s anatomical knowledge was based on the French artistic anatomy of the 19(th) century, succeeded by Kume and Nishida. Lee Quede’s drawing notes are valuable documents for assessing the influence of Japanese artistic anatomy on Korean artistic anatomy.