Dr. Moeller & Cie Kunsthandel

Art history owes the rediscovery of Christian Friedrich Gille’s oeuvre primarily to the wealthy art-lover Johann Friedrich Lahmann (Bremen 1858 - 1937 Dresden). The astonishing work of the artist came to the latter’s attention in his chosen home of Dresden after the turn of the century, and he began to collect his works systematically. He would ultimately own more than 400 paintings and sketches by Gille, large selections of which Lahmann bequeathed to the museums of Bremen and Dresden. The remaining works were auctioned after his death by Rudolph Lepke in Berlin. Walther Heinrich wrote the preface to the comprehensive catalogue under his nom-de-plume, UNUS. In the second of the auctions, in June 1938, Heinrich himself acquired both of the oil studies shown here.