The Indian Braves

Georg Heinrich Kuhrner's early paintings were genre subjects, inspired by his training at the Vienna Academy under Huber. He became increasingly interested in exotic subject matter and painted powerful images of the wildlife of Africa and the Indians of North America which he worked up from his imagination. In order to create verisimilitude in his wildlife paintings he traveled to the zoo to study the lions and tigers. The present painting was inspired by the "Buffalo Bill" circus act that traveled to Vienna. Kuhrner was deeply moved by the native Americans who performed as part of this exotic act and he used them as models for The Indian Braves.