Oil/wood, 20,5 x 27 cm, lo. le. sign. Wilh. Kuhnert, on the reverse sign. againg and titled. - Whether wall-filling or in cabinet format: Kuhnert's depictions of animals are always brilliant. True to life and unaffected in their postures, characteristic in the features of the respective species, without appearing artificial through inappropriate attention to detail. Kuhnert also avoids pathos and kitsch in equal measure. Very few animal painters have achieved such mastery. - German animal painter. K. studied as a scholarship holder 1883-87 at the Berlin Academy with F. K. Bellermann and P. F. Meyerheim. He made numerous trips to Scandinavia, but especially to Africa and India, where he found his motifs and developed into the most important representative of his genre by dealing with the tropical animal world. His works were not only shown at the most important European exhibitions, but also distributed in numerous reproductions, among others he created illustrations for 'Brehms Tierleben'. Mus.: Hannover, Leiden, Enschede, Fort Worth. Lit.: Thieme-Becker, Bénézit a. others.