Kuhnert studied at the Berlin Academy, where he arrived in 1883. There he was a pupil of Paul Meyerheim, also a painter of animals. Where previous inspiration in depicting wildlife had been relegated to the safe confines of the local zoo, Kuhnert was one of the first artists to travel abroad for this very purpose. In 1891, he made his first trip to Africa and thereafter made further excursions to the Orient, India and Ceylon, and in later years also to Scandinavia. Accumulating endless sketches and preparatory drawings in his travels, he would return intermittently to Berlin and rework these onto canvas. In these finished pieces, Kuhnert presents us with a commanding insight into the vast kingdom of the animal world. In it man plays a very small role and the animals, in their many guises, rule supreme.