Paintings of Han Palace are a subordinating theme of the court decorative paintings in the late Joseon. In those paintings, not a real palace of the ancient Han dynasty in China but imaginary palaces of China were depicted. At present, a considerable number of folding screens of Han Palace remain. This study aims to understand its style and characteristics, and to investigate its historical background within the trans-East Asian perspective. In China, paintings of palaces, based on historical court stories, had been produced for the didactic purpose until Ming (1368~1644) and Qing (1644~1912) periods. However, neither paintings depicting the Chinese historical palaces nor Joseon palaces were developed until the late Joseon period. Only brief f loor plans of palaces or government office buildings were produced. Architectural paintings emerged as a new painting theme in the late Joseon period. Simultaneously, depiction of the imaginary Chinese palaces appeared and increased in the court decorative painting. The palace depicted in paintings of Han Palace ref lects an East Asian concept of utopia based on thoughts of the immortality. In the context of Taoism, a palace or a pavilion is the place where the immortals live. Historically, a palace means the symbolic space where an empress dowager enjoyed the delight and comfort in her old age in Han dynasty. Because of these double meanings, images of a grand palace or a splendid pavilion were depicted in a painting as a gift for celebrating birthday in China.