Gert Schiff (December 24, 1926 - December 19, 1990) was an art historian, critic, lecturer and professor at the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University.

A specialist in the Romantic movement, particularly the work of Henry Fuseli and William Blake, Schiff was also very much involved with 20th-century art. In 1983, he organized for the Guggenheim Museum the first show devoted entirely to the work of Picasso's later years, now widely acclaimed but at the time considered inferior to that of the artist's earlier periods. He also organized a major show of artworks by William Blake, with a book-length catalogue, that ran at the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo from September through November. In 1959, he published a two-volume study in German of the work of the Swiss-born painter Fuseli that was issued in an English-language translation in the United States.

Schiff had held dual appointments on the faculties of Washington Square College of New York University and the Institute of Fine Arts since 1965. In 1974, he joined the Institute as a full-time staff member, with the rank of professor of fine arts. Professor Schiff taught English and German painting of the 19th century and Central European baroque painting and sculpture. "He broadened our intellectual horizons by forcing us to look at old favorites in a new way, and helped us search out completely unknown and forgotten corners of the history of art," said Prof. Edward Sullivan, chairman of the department of fine arts at New York University, a friend and former student of Schiff.

Born in Oldenburg, Germany, on December 24, 1926, to a lawyer and his wife, Maria Martinsen (born 1901), an actress, Schiff graduated from the Humanistic Gymnasium there in 1943. During military service toward the end of World War II, he was captured by the French and spent a year in a prisoner of war camp. After his release in 1945, he studied law, psychology and graphology, gradually turning toward art history and archeology. He entered Cologne University in 1952 and earned a Ph.D. in art history 10 years later. The following year, his Johann Heinrich Füsslis Milton-Galerie appeared, a particularly important work on the artist. Schiff was recruited to New York University by Horst Woldemar Janson, joining the faculty of the college of New York University in 1965. There Schiff taught courses on the history of English- and German 19th-century painting as well as Central European baroque painting and sculpture. He lived a bohemian lifestyle during this time, taking quarters at the Chelsea Hotel in Soho. His writing on Fuseli led to a series of important exhibitions on the artist, beginning with the one at the Kunsthaus, Zürich, in 1969. Schiff wrote the standard monograph on Fuseli in 1973, his Johann Heinrich Füssli, 1741-1825. A recollection of him at his residence at the Chelsea Hotel is contained in the autobiography by Patti Smith, Just Kids.

At the death of Robert Goldwater, he joined the Institute of Fine Arts with the rank of professor of fine arts in 1974. During these years he moved to an apartment on West End Avenue in Manhattan. An open homosexual, he formed a long-term partnership with the artist Ching Ho Cheng. Another major Fuseli exhibition under Schiff was mounted at the Tate Gallery, 1975. He was named Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities at the Institute of Fine Arts. In 1983 Schiff organized first show devoted entirely to the work of Picasso's last years, then a period derided, for the Guggenheim Museum. Schiff's interest in the history of art history led him to edit the important volumes of art-historical tracts in 1988. His partner died in 1989 of chronic lung disease associated with the art materials with which he worked. Schiff was commissioned to organize a show on William Blake by director Seiro Mayekawa for the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo. However, Schiff contracted lymphoma before he could complete this project and the show opened without his presence in 1990. He died the same year at age 63. A projected English-language version of his Fuseli monograph was never published. His students included Eunice Lipton, Susan Grace Galassi, Sabine Rewald, Gertje Utley and Edward Sullivan, a chair of the department of fine arts at New York University. Schiff was "never an academic snob" (Rosenblum), his personal and professional interests encompassed popular culture as well as traditional art history. Nearly all scholars remarked on the amazing breadth of erudition, from classical languages and literature as well as art.

Schiff died on December 19, 1990, at his home in Manhattan. He was 63 years old. He died of lymphoma, said a close friend, Sybao Cheng-Wilson.