Wilhelm Kuhnert

Galerie G, Heidelberg

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This work has never been removed from its original stretcher. It has been varnished and probably cleaned fairly recently. While the animals in the foreground read very well, there is what seems to be evidence that perhaps dirt remains in the sky. A reexamination of the cleaning may be fruitful. There are a couple of spots of retouching in the lower sky on the right, but the painting is certainly in lovely condition. Despite the fact that it will respond to cleaning, it can also be hung in its current state.
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In the late nineteenth century, any young artist who showed an interest in painting animal subjects was encouraged to visit one of the many zoos which were fast becoming popular across Europe.  The zoos of Dresden and Berlin were by far the most well-known, and had provided “models” for many important German painters.  However, the resulting works, while capturing the exotic appeal of lions, tigers, leopards, and other wild-life, were in reality often based on aged or sickly animals that had been rejected from traveling fairs or circuses.  Dissatisfied with this teaching method, Wilhelm Kuhnert chose to follow the example of Germany’s celebrated animal painter Richard Friese, who advocated the study of wild animals in their native habitats.  One of the first European artists to travel to East Africa in 1891, Kuhnert later published the three volume Animal Life of the Earth (1901), based on his sketches of the wildlife and terrain of the region.  The demand for his impressive depictions of African wildlife led Kuhnert to return to the German and English colonial territories of East and South Africa on safari in 1905 and 1911-12.  During this period, the artist refined his working process in order to create powerful works such as Spähende Löwen (Lions at Watch).

In the present work Kuhnert captures a lion resting, his long-whiskered muzzle on the dark tawny back of his fellow hunter, both animals focusing their amber eyes on prey sensed only by them.  The great cats are formed by Kuhnert’s light brush, using strokes of color and texture to build the variegated tones of the lions’ manes as well as their environment of dusty black rocks on scrabbly ground and white, bone-dry trees.

Of all of Kuhnert’s animal subjects, lions were a particular favorite and his deep connection with the animal earned him the nickname “Lion-Kuhnert.”  His compositions were equally loved by his many patrons and the present work is likely a commission completed in the studio after 1917, informed by a smaller sketch and his travel diaries which detailed the artist’s encounter with a pride on the hunt.