Scholar of Henry Fuseli amd the Romantic movement; Institute of Fine Arts of New York University professor of art history. Schiff's father was a lawyer in Oldenburg, Germany and his mother was the actress Maria Martinsen (b. 1901). He attended the Humanistisches Gymnasium there, graduating in 1943, and immediately entered the man-strapped German military during World War II. Captured by the French, Schiff spent a year in a prisoner of war camp.