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In July 1943, the art historian Johannes Guthmann approached Special Commissioner Hermann Voss with an offer: “I intend to part with my collection of modern German works on paper. [...] The main focus is the complete works of Otto Greiner [...]”. The intimate portrait shown here suggests that the collector was close friends with the artist. Guthmann not only collected works by the Leipzig-born lithographer and painter Greiner or his contemporary Max Slevogt; as a writer, his publications also helped make them popular.

A considerable volume of correspondence found in the Special Commission’s files and preserved in the Federal Archives shows that this was the legal acquisition of a private collection. Guthmann's offer was followed by valuations, negotiations and finally the purchase at a price of 45,000 reichsmarks. This was carried out by Hermann Voss, who had succeeded Hans Posse in March 1943, following the latter’s death in December 1942.