Wilhelm Friedrich Kuhnert (German, 1865-1926)
In the Jungle - Tigers
signed 'Wilh. Kuhnert' (lower left)
oil on panel
37 x 62.5cm (14 9/16 x 24 5/8in).
Footnotes:
Provenance
With The Fine Art Society, London, May 1911, no. 34.
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, New York, 2 December 2005, lot 155.
Private collection, UK (acquired from the above sale).

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Wilhelm Kuhnert often worked directly from nature taking hours to track down his subjects and then sketching the animals in the wild rather than in zoos. He is best known for his striking pictures of lions and tigers, captured in their natural environment, and portrayed in all their majesty.

After graduating from Berlin University of the Arts in 1887, Kuhnert travelled widely to Scandinavia, Egypt, East Africa and India. Kuhnert was an outstanding draughtsman and a prodigiously talented artist, equally at ease with a minutely detailed etching as he was working on his oils. His work is characterised by a blend of rapid execution combined with anatomical accuracy - reputedly he never used an eraser on a single drawing or made any corrections to any of his 137 etching plates.

The present lot shows Kuhnert at his absolute best. The tigers are likely those observed whilst on his travels in India, and he has chosen to show them at a moment of rest. Here we can clearly see his distinctive blending of speed and detail, with the focal tiger being highly finished, with beautifully rendered fur, whilst the other tiger and the background have been achieved with greater immediacy. This creates an effect similar to that of a glance and pushes focus on to the central tiger.