Bae Un-seong (1900-1978) studied in Germany in the 1920s and moved to Paris at the end of the 1930s to lead a life as a painter. He returned to Korea in 1940 due to the outbreak of World War II, and defected to North Korea during the Korean War. His painting titled Gajokdo depicts a large family gathered around the courtyard of a hanok (Korean traditional house), with a grandmother holding a baby in her arms at the center. It recalls a family photograph taken in the modern times. The seventeen members of the family stand or sit straight facing forward, though some of them show slight signs of movements as well. The painting has been preserved in a very good condition, but doesn’t have the painter’s signature. The owner of this painting purchased it from France along with Bae Un-seong’s other paintings, in order to introduce the painter’s artistic achievements to Korea. This portrait of a large family is a rarity in Korean art, so it is particularly valuable as it is also the most famous work of Bae Un-seong, the first Korean artist to enter the artistic world of Berlin and Paris.