Gerda was born in 1906 in Trieste, an Italian city then under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city was a satellite of the culture of Vienna, capital of the Empire and cradle of the most radical modernism. There, she rubbed shoulders with surrealists and was introduced to modern ideas (she studied philosophy with writer James Joyce's brother) and dance. Throughout her work, even after her arrival in Brazil, these references to Viennese modernism will be present. The portrait that the painter, also an immigrant, Ernesto de Fiori, made of Gerda can be seen as a kind of letter of Brazilian naturalization, while at the same time showing how she approached the modernists of São Paulo, especially those of foreign origin.