Born in 1916 in the Pyeongwon plain, Pyeongan Nam, as the son of a wealthy farmer, Lee Jung Seob showed an exceptional aptitude for drawing, graduated from Osan School, and went to study in Japan. During his studies at Tokyo Imperial University, he received the 'Taiyo Sho' (Sun Award), recognizing his genius, and then married his junior, Nam Deok (Masako), before returning to his country. After liberation, he suffered hardships under communist oppression, and then war broke out. Jung Seob fled south with the national army, experiencing terrible anguish between life and art. In 1955, near the end of his life, he showed symptoms of anorexia and mutism due to artistic doubt and human frustration, as well as signs of mental illness. However, this was less an artist's eccentricity than the gesture of a pure human suffering from his era.