Carl Rungius 1869 - 1959

Private Collection (acquired from the artist)
By descent in the family
Private Collection, Florida
ACG Galleries, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 2008

New York, National Academy of Design, 99th Annual Exhibition, March-April 1924, no. 240, illustrated
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 120th Annual Exhibition, February-March 1925, no. 61

This work is in good condition. The canvas is lined, and there is craquelure visible throughout the sky. Under UV: There are thin lines that are most likely inpainting to address this craquelure.
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Alaskan Wilderness demonstrates Carl Rungius’ mature style, exhibiting his commitment to rendering the natural beauty of North America with scientific integrity, as well as his embrace of the modern aesthetics evolving around him. In his depiction of a regal North American moose, the painter consciously reduces anatomical and topographical detail to simple strokes of color and masses of form (David Wagner, “Getting It Right: Roots of Contemporary Wildlife Art,” Natural Habitat: Contemporary Wildlife Artists of North America, New York, 1998, p. 26).

Growing up in Germany, Rungius refined his skills as a draughtsman by sketching wildlife in the local zoo. Reflecting years later on a painting by Richard Friese he had seen in his childhood, Rungius stated, “I was just an impressionable boy. To me that moose was the essence of the wilderness itself” (John Batten, “Carl Rungius – An Appreciation”, Records of North American Big Game, Alexandria, 1981, p. 101). In 1894, Rungius traveled to Maine in search of his object of desire, and joined a hunting exhibition to Wyoming the following year. This second excursion cemented his love for the American wilderness, and the wildlife indigenous to the Rocky Mountains of Western North America in particular.

Regularly conducting expeditions into the Western United States, Canada, and Alaska, the budding artist recreated his rugged first-hand experiences in his studio back in New York. As part-zoologist, part-artist, Rungius conducted intense field study in the form of plein air painting, drawing, photographing, hunting, and preparing wildlife, before returning to his studio to combine his materials into a single composition. Having grown into an accomplished hunter, Rungius’ experience with taxidermy contributed significantly to his knowledge of anatomy, while his observation of wild animals in their natural habitat strengthened his understanding of their behavior and relationship to their surroundings (Donald Crouch, Carl Rungius: The Complete Prints: A Catalog Raisonné, Missoula, Montana, 1989, p. 24). Exhibiting his commitment to accurately render his subject, his early works were often supported by the New York Zoological Society and viewed by a public increasingly interested in the country’s natural world, led in part by Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency and later the creation of the National Park Service in 1916.

Rungius, however, eventually moved away from literal representation and towards an impressionistic interpretation of wildlife. In 1925, the year after Alaskan Wilderness was featured in the National Academy of Design’s annual exhibition, his early champion, the zoologist William Temple Hornaday wrote Rungius saying “your letter and your latest pictures clearly indicate that you have greatly changed your technique, and that you are now an out-and-out impressionist” (Crouch, p. 6).  Rungius’ obsession with the North American Moose never abated. In addition to numerous oil paintings depicting the moose, Rungius completed a sculpture and 16 different etchings of his favored subject, including a version of the present painting. The painter never completely abandoned his ties to the zoological community and in 1939 began work on the background painting of the moose diorama at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.