Gerhard Henning was active in the circle around Ivar Arosenius and Ole Kruse during the early years of the last century. They lived a bohemian life in Gothenburg, enjoying convivial gatherings. Their creative endeavors flourished, and the artistic dreams grew.

Henning had begun his artistic education with Carl Wilhelmson at Valand, focusing on painting and drawing, as well as at the Artists' Association school in Stockholm. Later, after Arosenius's passing in 1909, when Henning moved to Copenhagen, his focus shifted to sculpture instead, both at the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Factory, where he explored the possibilities of porcelain, and later in his larger bronzes, often depicting female figures.

In the collection of the Göteborgs Konstuseum, there is a watercolour depicting Ester Sahlin seated with a book in a landscape (inv. no. GKM 1999). The same landscape appears in the auction's work, dated 1904, featuring a young man sitting in front of a birch trunk. Ester Sahlin was during a period Arosenius's partner and had mingled frequently with the group. Eventually, they went their separate ways, and Ester began her acting career, joining a touring theatre company. The members of the artist circle often chose to portray one another in their artworks, and the depicted man, is likely one of Henning's friends.

“In Henning's fairy-tale drawings, as well as in his graphic prints, much of the mystically saturated dream atmosphere of the turn of the century lingers, and more than in Arosenius, a romanticism blooms in him that seeks the distant through fairy tale and dream. But as much as we are captivated by the narrative of the motif, we are also drawn in by the delicate interplay of lines, which gives his images both a material quality and an airy blur.” (Gösta Lilja, 1952, from Gerhard Henning's etchings)