Otto Dix was born in Dresden in 1891. He studied at the city's Academy of Fine Arts, where he took drawing classes with the painter Willi Baumeister at the suggestion of Max Liebermann. During his studies he met fellow students Käthe Kollwitz and Walter Gropius. Dix himself became a teacher in 1918, at the age of 32
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His paintings were reproduced in several books by writer Rainer Maria Rilke, who also wrote an essay on Dix's on the artist's work for his book on landscape painting, Die Aufzeichnungen des Malers Friedrich. When war broke out in 1914, Dix joined the German army and served on the Western Front between 1914 and 1917. He was severely wounded during a gas attack in 1915 and spent some time recovering at home.
During recovery he painted War Incubation (1915). After recovering, Dix resumed his work as a teacher, but by 1920 he had become disenchanted with the effects of war and emigrated to France with his family. The family settled first in Paris and then moved to Le Havre, where Dix began work as an illustrator and occasional writer for various newspapers and magazines.
