Eugen Spiro was born into a Jewish family in Breslau, Silesia (now Wrocław, Poland) 18 April 1874. After studying art in Breslau and Munich, he relocated to Paris to study the French masters, becoming a Professor at the Académie Moderne and co-founding the Salon d’Automne. In 1914 Spiro returned to Berlin and was appointed Chairman of the progressive Berlin Secession and Professor of the Academy of Arts. Following Hitler’s appointment as German Chancellor in 1933 and the introduction of anti-Semitic legislation, three of his oils were included in the 'Exhibition of German-Jewish Artists' Work: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture' (5-15 June 1934) organised at the Parsons Gallery, London by German-Jewish emigre dealer, Carl Braunschweig (later Charles Brunswick), which included in total 221 artworks by 86 artists suffering persecution under the Nazi regime. In 1935 Spiro fled to Paris, co-founding, co-directing and chairing the Union des Artistes Libres; forced to flee again in 1940, travelling via Spain and Portugal to the USA, where he settled in New York and painted landscapes and portraits of his German-Jewish circle including Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann and Artur Schnabel. Eugen Spiro died in New York, United States on 26 September 1972.