조선시대는 역사 이래 미술문화가 가장 번성했던 시기이며, 무엇보다도 국가가 필요로 하는 미술 전문 인력을 국립미술교육기관인 도화서라는 양성기관에서 배출했다는 점에서 미술교육이 존재했다는 사실이다. 그러나 조선시대 화원미술교육에 관해 자료의 희소성과 오늘날과 다른 교육환경 속에서 이루어졌기 때문에 화원교육에 대한 접근이 어려운 것이 사실이다. 그럼에도 불구하고 화원관련 여러 사적 자료들을 근거로 현대교육학적 관점에서 재해석을 통해서 화원교육을 조망해 보고자 한다.
Hwawon of the Joseon court were painters who specialized in painting under the command of Dohwaseo which was established as a national organization or Gyujanggak. The view of fine arts education in Joseon Dynasty was divided into three types: values for public interest which considered painting as a role of realizing political ideology based on Confucianism, ideology of various arts and crafts at the end of Joseon Dynasty regarding drawing as arts, and signal values which viewed drawing as a way of cultivating one's personality. The objective of fine arts education for Hwawon was to train for a skill to describe something exactly, and its curriculum attached importance to copying of picture books or fine works, minute description skill, sketching of real things, and ornamental and practical pictures. And its assessment laid its importance on exact depiction and reality that all things including even a strand of hair are depicted as they are. As an official organization of fine arts education, Dohwaseo under the system took charge of drawing realistic records, so the educational contents were restricted by demands of the ruling class and the Royal House. Nevertheless, its meaning is laid on the fact that it cultivated painters in Joseon Dynasty through its systematic curriculum. Hwawon produced famous painters and the culture of fine arts led by them are taught as traditional fine arts in modern fine arts education. When it is said that the traditional fine arts is to succeed cultural asset of our ancestors, the succession means just education.