I just wanted to share my love of the German Expressionist Painter, Christian Schad(1894-1962). His work is so detailed and beautiful. He has a dreamlike realism to his painting and the eyes of his subjects just grab you. I love their strangeness and direct connection with the viewer. I feel as if I'm locked in a room with them, and I can't move.

Agosta the Winged Man, The Rasha the Black Dove, 1929

Cafe' d'Italia, 1921

Fraulein Mulino Von Kluck Christian, 1930

The Operation, 1929

Marcella, 1926

Maika, 1929

Maria and Annuziata from the Harbour, 1923

Count St. Genois d'Anneucourt 1927

Self-Portrait with Model, 1927

"Schad's portraits express much of the modern liberal-libertarian spirit of the age, of the awareness of life of people who really began to live-whose interesting life started-only with the onset of night." 

Sergiusz Michalski, "New Objectivity"

As an illustrator, I love the way Schad plays with the shadows of light and dark. He amazes me with perfection of detail when he draws clothing and hair. It is so simple and stylized. (I'll admit, I am a bit jealous of his abilities) He has a way of creating beauty on the surface with ugliness seeping through on closer inspection.

What an inspiration. Don't you think.