Birkle painted this during the Weimar Republic (1919–33), the era in Germany between the devastating end of World War I and before the rise of the Nazi Party. German artists were turning from the emotional brushstrokes of Expressionism to the realism of New Objectivity. Portraits were common, but were used to depict social types instead of individuals—here, a man and his profession but not his personality. And yet the anxiety of the war can still be seen in his eyes and the spying stare of the messenger in the background.
