for the pleasant things in our life – all these have always been an inspiration for his colleagues.” Although Müller never took up a teaching post at an art academy, his life's work led many colleagues and friends to see him as the “old master of Halle painting” (Ingrid Schulze 1969). Two professors at the Burg Giebichstein art academy for example, Karl Müller (1888–1972) and Willi Sitte showed their students graphic works by Müller. From the late 1950s onwards, young people with artistic interests sought contact with Müller, resulting in intensive discussions and joint studies of professional artists. These include Falko Warmt (b. 1938), with Müller from 1960 to 1963, Karl-Heinz Köhler (b. 1937) and Wolfgang Grunwald. What they all had in common was that none of them had studied directly at the art academy, all exercising unrelated professions, one being a chemist, one a cartographer and the other a teacher. Upon retirement, Müller no longer needed to take on assignments in order to earn a living. From the latter half of the 1960s, he dedicated himself to depictions of plants and, in particular, to crayon portraits of girls. Following the birth of his granddaughter Claudia in 1967, he produced a substantial number of baby portraits in oil. In the 1970s, Otto Müller and fellow artist Karl-Erich Müller often worked together on sketches in Halle, Merseburg and the Saalkreis. These studies resulted in several hundred drawings and watercolours, documenting various condemned buildings in Halle's old town. A large number of graphic urban landscapes are now kept in the city archives in Halle. Müller's circle of friends and rising young artists from Halle at this time included Wolfgang Barton (b. 1932), Bernhard Michel (b. 1939), Bernt Wilke (1b. 943) and Fotis Zaprasis (b. 1940). In 1977, the State Gallery on the Hansering in Halle opened with a sales exhibition of works by Müller. The interest was so great that almost all exhibited works were sold. On December 9, 1979, Müller died as a result of a serious lung complaint in the Carl von Basedow clinic in Merseburg. Works Müller mastered a number of different graphical and artistic techniques: Drawing: With pencil, crayon, and felt-tip pens, sanguine drawings, sepia drawings (using a quill), ink drawings (using a paintbrush), Watercolor painting Painting: Tempera, wax painting, Oil painting His own combinations of some of these techniques Throughout his career, Müller produced images of people