The Adoration of the Shepherds, ca. 1765

About the Acquisition

In accordance with the statutes laid down by its founder, the Städelsches Kunst-Institut is overseen by an independent administrative body consisting of five individuals, all of them “worthy persons from among the local citizenry”. Moritz Gontard had been a long-serving member of the administration who is remembered at the Städel to this day as the donor of Lucas Cranach’s ‘Venus’. At Christmas 1886, following Gontard’s sudden death, Jakob Klein-Hoff was elected to take his place. Klein-Hoff continued the honourable tradition of donating to the museum.