Živorad Nastasijević was born in 1893 in Gornji Milanovac. He finished art school in Belgrade in 1910, as a student of Đoko Jovanović, Rista Vukanović and Marko Murat. He continued his painting studies in Munich, with Professor Grabar, 1913–1914, but had to interrupt them due to the outbreak of the First World War. Like many Serbian artists of the first half of the 20th century, Nastasijević voluntarily joined the student battalion of Stepo Stepanović, crossed Albania and got over typhus. During the war, he participated first as a fighter until 1917, and then as a war painter of the Supreme Command. After the war, he continued his education in Paris in 1920–1922 at the Grande Chaumiere Academy, with Professor Castallucci. Upon his return to the country, he took an active part in cultural events. He painted frescoes, landscapes, portraits, still lifes. He is one of the founders of the Belgrade group “Zograf”, which sought to renew Serbian medieval painting.