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The painter himself is at the centre of this evening dance scene: Standing in a three-quarter profile, Otto Dix (1891–1969) looks out at the viewer with a sceptical expression. The space behind him is populated by puppets and people all around him: Two dancers, a drummer, a waiter and a decorative bust. A cold spotlight illuminates the painter's face in the semi-darkness. Like a signal, the pointed triangle of his white shirt precisely marks the centre of the picture, emphasising his central role. Dix looks serious and sober. The telephone receiver in his left hand emphasises his distance from the pleasure of dancing and from the traditional role of the artist. The modern connection to the outside world characterises him as a reporter, a 'man of reality', as he later described himself. While the doll in the left-hand corner of the picture still represents a type of femininity from the previous century, the dancer behind her, with her short bob, embodies the so-called 'new woman' of the 1920s.

"To Beauty" is also the title of a poem by the Alsatian poet Ernst Stadler (1883–1914), who became a leading figure of Expressionism with his collection of poems "The Awakening". After his experiences as a volunteer at the front during the First World War, Dix firmly distanced himself from Expressionist tendencies: "The Expressionists made enough art, we wanted to see reality completely naked, clear, almost without art". Dix's motifs are often polemically exaggerated and socially critical.