Lee Chongwoo, a 1923 graduate from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, left for Paris to study in 1925 to develop the technique of classical realism. During his stay in Paris in 1926, Lee painted this picture for a Korean student studying in Paris and portrayed him in the image of an intellectual accepting new Western culture. Lee distinctly painted the student's experession, muscles, and facial lines as a realistic representation rather than as an idealization.
