From April 1909, Albert Brinckmann was initially a research assistant at the Kestner Museum under museum director Wilhelm Behncke, and three years later (1912) he succeeded him as director.
Brinckmann had a special interest in modernism and fine art, which led to insurmountable difficulties with the Hanoverian city director Heinrich Tramm regarding the orientation of the Kestner Museum. These eventually led to Brinckmann's own resignation. He left office in 1920.
Brinckmann shared a preference for modernism with his assistant Paul Erich Küppers, which became apparent in jointly curated exhibitions and resulted in the founding of the Kestnergesellschaft in 1916. This portrait was also painted in that year. (AVS)