253 Wilhelm Kuhnert -Lion on the Lurk

SOLD
Winning Bid Undisclosed
This item SOLD at 2018 Apr 07 @ 14:31UTC-7 : PDT/MST
Category Art
Auction Currency USD
Start Price NA
Estimated at 20,000.00 - 30,000.00 USD
Lion on the Lurk
Artist: Wilhelm Kuhnert
Date of Birth: 1865-1926
Medium: Oil on board
Dimensions: 5 1/2 x 10 inches
Signed: Signed lower left
Verso:
Frame/Outer Dim: 14 x 18
Born in Germany in 1865, Wilhelm Kuhnert seemed destined to paint. In 1883, he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin where his instructors encouraged students to paint animals and landscapes en plein air–from life–as the Impressionists in France advocated. Three years later, Germany established the colony of German East Africa, which included Mt. Kilimanjaro, the rich game lands around the Rufiji River and parts of Maasailand. To an ambitious wildlife artist and committed hunter like Kuhnert, the call of Africa was strong, and he found funds and equipment to make the journey. For 15 years, at the head of long trains of bearers, Kuhnert would draw and paint people and animals and explore areas of Africa that few Europeans had ever seen. Kuhnert’s nickname was “Lion” because of his skill at capturing the big cats, and Lion on the Lurk–though not a large painting–is exquisite both as a depiction of a big-maned male and as a deft and painterly work of art.