In keeping with European artistic tradition, Hermann Struck went on an extended journey throughout Europe after his graduation in 1900.

This portrait of an old man belonged to a group of three works that the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett [Museum of Prints and Drawings] purchased from Struck in 1901. Ten years later, the German writer Georg Hermann remarked, ?? there is hardly a public or private collection that is not open to his art.?