— Overview
The notes stay with how the novelist came to the story in a museum, and they do not invent that novelist’s name.
— Contents and key concepts
A museum visit, and one woman under two names
The notes take up the novel Portraits of Geniuses, a long work about Yi Sang, often called a genius of the colonial period, and Byeon Dong-rim, who was also the wife of the painter K. That painter, they come to see, is Kim Whanki, and she is later known as Kim Hyang-an.
The novelist, who is not named, is said to have come to the story after a chance visit to a museum, on learning that Yi Sang’s wife and Kim Whanki’s wife were the same person.
L’s diary, and Juri in the present
Beside those lives they place L, a cool observer. A few lines of L’s inquiry, they write, were taken into ‘L’s diary,’ as a way of grounding testimony. The book, in this reading, is built on fact and then re-made with fiction.
The novel also follows Juri, a present-day figure who reads Byeon Dong-rim’s diary. Two people who have stayed abroad, and their resolutions, are held together so that love around ‘genius,’ and a portrait of it, can be held in view.
Portraits left in the woman they loved
The title, they write, means that the portraits of two men — Yi Sang the writer, Kim Whanki the painter — remain in Byeon Dong-rim, the woman they loved. The notes first expected a romance, then found themselves pulled in by Kim Hyang-an.
They leave the subject there, before later tables of terms. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.
Sources
- Student notes on the novel Portraits of Geniuses, staying with Yi Sang, Byeon Dong-rim, and Kim Whanki.
Last updated 15 November 2026
Frequently asked questions
What discovery, in the notes, starts the novel?
The writer of the book, unnamed here, visits a museum by chance and learns that Yi Sang’s wife, Byeon Dong-rim, and the wife of the painter K — Kim Whanki — were the same person, later known as Kim Hyang-an.
Whom do they follow beside those historical figures?
L, a cool observer whose investigation, they write, is partly borrowed into ‘L’s diary,’ and Juri, a present-day figure who reads Byeon Dong-rim’s diary. The book, they say, mixes fact with fiction.
What do they take the title to mean?
That the portraits of two ‘geniuses,’ the writer Yi Sang and the painter Kim Whanki, remain in the woman they both loved, Byeon Dong-rim. The novelist is not named.
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