日治時期臺灣處於殖民體制下，專業的美術訓練教育並不普及，因此畫家的養成方式趨於多元。在臺灣東洋畫當中，被應用最少的題材人物畫，則發生其畫家的學、經歷兩極化的現象－民間畫家和學院畫家的組成結構。而民間畫家中最遠離畫壇核心的薛萬棟，以及兒童時期即留學日本，深受學院與名師薰陶的林之助，可分別為兩方的代表。本研究以圖像分析為主，文獻探討為輔，對兩人在臺、府展中的人物畫作品進行比較。發現在人物動作、畫面經營、造型與色彩三方面，兩人的風格的確大相逕庭。薛萬棟具有民間畫家特徵的非系統性風格變換、西畫化的特徵；林之助具有日本學院派風格、畫面高度統一性的特徵。最後以藝術社會學的方法，認定兩人風格的差異主要源於當時殖民體制下的社會結構。當時流行的「臺展型」畫風是殖民地現實下的產物，薛、林二人同樣在此架構下，從學、經歷到藝術表現都分別呈現相逆的「在野化」與「中央化」。因此不但表現在兩人風格的巨大差異上，也造成他們不同於「臺展型」的情形。

Taiwan was dominated by colonial regime during Japanese Occupation Period so lacking of professional artistic education at that time. The development of painters was multiple. In Taiwanese Toyoga, figure-painting was less than other theme painting. The educational background and experience of Taiwanese Toyoga painters who created figure-painting were divided into two extreme types: folk painters and academic painters. Hsueh Wan-Tung was the representative of the folk painters because he was not closely to the important artists and artistic sponsors. Lin Chih-Chu was the representative of the academic painters because he had studied abroad Japan from childhood, and studied in famous college there and his teacher was famous artist.Image analysis is the major step in the research, and investigating literature proves the result of analysis. From comparing works of the two painters, the research discovers their artistic styles which show ”figure-action”,”painting-composition”, and ”form and color” the three items are opposite. Hsueh Wan-Tung changed his artistic style randomly and created similar western painting finally was the characteristic of folk painters then. The works of Lin Chih-Chu are similar Japanese painting and the elements of painting are unified by the one feature. Last, the conclusion in the research method of sociology of the arts is that difference of the two painters' artistic style is from the structure of colonial society.Then the artistic style ”Taiwan Exhibition Type” which the colonial system led to was popular. In such environment, the educational background, experience, and creative attitude of Hsueh Wan-Tung and Lin Chih-Chu were ”Non-academic” and ”Academic”. The situation not only caused that the artistic styles of the two painters were very different, but also both of their styles were different from ”Taiwan Exhibition Type”.