The German painter Christian Schad (1894, Miesbach - 1982, Stuttgart) is considered to be one of the main representatives of the New Objectivity art movement and is counted among the most important protagonists of Verism. In 1913, during his studies at the Munich Art Academy, he produced his first expressionist woodcuts. After the outbreak of World War I, the young artist joined the circle of Zurich Dadaists and became co-editor of the magazine Sirius.
After interim stays in Rome, Naples, and Vienna, he moved to Berlin in 1928, where he orientated himself according to the clear, realistic style of the New Objectivity. In his portraits, which have gone down in art history as icons, he portrayed the era of the Roaring Twenties, subliminally conveying the isolation and alienation of the individual in the interwar period with revealing richness in detail. After the National Socialists seized power, Schad's work was not categorized as "degenerate", but he was denied recognition. It was not until 1972 that his life's work was honoured in a comprehensive retrospective at the Palazzo Reale in Milan, and again in 1980, at the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Berlin.