Antonius Johannes Kristians was an Amsterdam etcher, painter, graphic artist and designer of book covers. He attended the State Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam. Kristians lived in the famous Parisian district Montmartre for almost a decade, where he met and befriended great painters such as Maurice Utrillo and Odilon Redon. After, he moved to The Hague and Amsterdam, where he would spend most of his life. He created political drawings for satirical magazines, portraits, landscapes and designs for bookcovers. He was one of the founding members of artist association 'De Onafhankelijken'. According to critics, his first works remind of The Fauves and the synthetic cubism of George Braque.