Li Shutong and the Dual Legacy of Impressionist Oil Painting

Abstract

This paper examines Li Shutong, an early Chinese art scholar studying in Japan, who systematically learned Impressionist oil painting at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. Upon returning to China, he localized and disseminated this art form through education, integrating his "sketching-light-color-atmosphere" system into art education and driving a paradigm shift in modern Chinese art pedagogy. Adopting the approach of "Western techniques as the body, Chinese intent as the application," he fused Eastern subjects with Impressionist language in his creative practice. He elevated art to the realm of aesthetic education and spiritual cultivation, accomplishing a cultural translation from technique to belief. Thus, he became a dual inheritor of Impressionism's eastward progression.