Rasha and Agosta, by Schad

"Agosta, the Pigeon-Chested Man, and Rasha, the Black Dove 1929 is a large portrait-orientated oil painting of two funfair performers made by the German artist Christian Schad. Set against a neutral background of purples, blues and greys, the painting features a white man (Agosta) on a decorative high-backed chair that is reminiscent of a throne. He is naked aside from a black and white robe that is swathed around his lower half, and he turns slightly to his right in an upright position that emphasises his unusually prominent ribcage. The man has a confident, almost arrogant expression, and stares down towards the viewer. Positioned in front of him at his feet is a black woman (Rasha) visible from the chest upwards, who wears a red and white halter-neck top. She is shown frontally and gazes impassively at the viewer. The painting is signed and dated by the artist in the bottom right corner.

This work was made in 1929 in Berlin, where Schad lived from 1927 to 1943. It is executed on a plain-weave linen canvas with the paint applied consistently all over. Schad met the subjects of the painting at a funfair in north Berlin, where they appeared together using the bird-related names referenced in the work’s title. As part of their performance, Agosta displayed his upside-down ribcage – a deformity with which he was born – while Rasha, who was from Madagascar, appeared with a large snake wrapped around her. Schad made two preparatory drawings of each sitter in charcoal, and in a 1977 text he claimed that the models were ‘simple, obliging and, like all performers, dependable and punctual. They told me much about their lives that was much more interesting than what I would have been told at a five o’clock tea’."                 

Text above from Tate Modern, London.