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Lot Essay
Upon leaving the Akademie in Berlin, the young Wilhelm Kuhnert acquired a studio in the city. His fascination with wild animals led him to the Berlin Zoo, and on one of his excursions the young artist was introduced to Hans Meyer, the first European to climb Kilimanjaro. Meyer was so impressed with Kuhnert's skill and enthusiasm for his subject, that Meyer asked him to illustrate his next book. Kuhnert told Meyer of his dream to travel to Africa to paint in nature and the author suggested that he travel to German East Africa, even lending the young man his safari equipment.
True to his word, Meyer commissioned Kuhnert to illustrate Brehems Tierbilder, and with the money he earned from the project, Kuhnert made his first trip to Africa in 1891. At the time, the German East African colony encompassed present-day Burundi, Rwanda and Tanganika. Its area was nearly three times the size of present-day Germany, and it was to this vast, mainly unexplored territory that Kuhnert arrived with his guides. This first trip to the African continent would shape the remainder of the artist's life and oeuvre.
Ost Africa is more an evocation than a careful rendering of a specific location. Through the use of color and light, Kuhnert has captured the dry heat, the intense colors and the vastness of this exotic landscape. With an almost Impressionistic approach to his brushwork and color juxtaposition, Kuhnert captures the personality of the landscape with the same mastery exhibited in his renderings of wildlife.
True to his word, Meyer commissioned Kuhnert to illustrate Brehems Tierbilder, and with the money he earned from the project, Kuhnert made his first trip to Africa in 1891. At the time, the German East African colony encompassed present-day Burundi, Rwanda and Tanganika. Its area was nearly three times the size of present-day Germany, and it was to this vast, mainly unexplored territory that Kuhnert arrived with his guides. This first trip to the African continent would shape the remainder of the artist's life and oeuvre.
Ost Africa is more an evocation than a careful rendering of a specific location. Through the use of color and light, Kuhnert has captured the dry heat, the intense colors and the vastness of this exotic landscape. With an almost Impressionistic approach to his brushwork and color juxtaposition, Kuhnert captures the personality of the landscape with the same mastery exhibited in his renderings of wildlife.