About the Acquisition
The merchant and art collector Moritz von Gontard was chairman of the administrative committee of the Städelsches Kunstinstitut for a long time until his death. Gontard made a gift to the museum on two occasions: once for the opening of the new building in Schaumainkai, completed in 1878, which he took as an opportunity to present the museum with Lucas Cranach's 'Venus'. Eight years later Moritz von Gontard died and bequeathed thirty-three Dutch and Flemish Baroque paintings to the Städel.