Wladimir Sagalowitz (1898–1969), called Sagal, was born in Witebsk, Belarus. Shortly afterwards, his parents moved to the West; before the First World War they lived in Wiesbaden, in the 1920s in Paris. The National Socialists turned him into a refugee who ultimately found sanctuary in Switzerland. There his artistic talents found expression as a cartoonist, painter and graphic artist. He was also in demand as a gifted portrait painter, and Sagal painted many of the celebrities of his age. However, his great love was the “Jewish heads”, those faces that bear, like virtually no others, the imprint of the 20th century.