Friedrich Wilhelm Kuhnert
Encyclopedia
Friedrich Wilhelm Kuhnert (September 18, 1865 – February 11, 1926) was a German painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
, who specialized in animal images.
Personal life
Kuhnert was born in OpoleOpole
Opole is a city in southern Poland on the Oder River . It has a population of 125,992 and is the capital of the Upper Silesia, Opole Voivodeship and, also the seat of Opole County...
in 1865. In 1894, he married the 18-year-old Emilie Caroline Wilhelmine Ottilie Alvine Herdikerhoff. They had a daughter, Emilie. The couple divorced in 1909 while Emilie was a student in Ceylon
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
. Kuhnert married for the second time to Gerda Jankowski in 1913. In 1925, on his 60th birthday, she died. Kuhnert died on February 11, 1926 during a recovery stay in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. His grave is on the Südwestkirchhof Stahnsdorf in Berlin.
Professional life
After end of his technical-commercial apprenticeship at the age of 17, Kuhnert was a scholarship student Royal Academic College of Fine Arts from 1883 to 1887. From his home in BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, he embarked on travels to Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, East Africa
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
to make landscape and animal studies. His favorite motif was the African lion. In 1901 Kuhnert was the illustrator of zoologist Johann Wilhelm Haacke
Wilhelm Haacke
Johann Wilhelm Haacke was a German zoologist born in Clenze, Lower Saxony.He studied zoology at the University of Jena, earning his doctorate in 1878. Afterwards he worked as an assistant at the Universities of Jena and Kiel...
's book Animal Life of the Earth. In 1903, he became the illustrator for the Cologne chocolate producers Ludwig Stollwerck.
Contrary to the practice of his peers, Friedrich Wilhelm Kuhnert distinguished himself by sketching tropical animals not zoo
Zoo
A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....
s but in the wild. He has made pictures by sketching, etching
Etching
Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...
, watercolor, and oil painting
Oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...
. Kuhnert is considered one of the most important German animal painters of his time. Since he was only painter and illustrator, but not a hunter, he often took heavy effort in the wild to track down his subjects.
Books by Kuhnert
- Im Lande meiner Modelle (In the land of my models). Leipzig 1918
- Meine Tiere: die Radierungen Wilhelm Kuhnerts (My animals: the etchings Wilhelm Kuhner). Berlin 1925
- Vollständiger Katalog der Originalradierungen des Künstlers (Full catalog of original etchings by the artist). Berlin 1927
Books about Kuhnert
- Angelika Grettmann-Werner: Wilhelm Kuhnert (1865-1926). Tierdarstellung zwischen Wissenschaft und Kunst. Hamburg 1981 ISBN 3-922732-09-7
- Hansjörg Werner: Wer war Wilhelm Kuhnert. Der grosse deutsche Tiermaler. ISBN 3-939119-09-1