( Ql. 



FOREWORD 



WILHELM KUHNERT is the greatest animal-painter of our day. There 

 has never been a more excellent colourist or more skilful draughtsman 

 of shape and action ; and there is none with a more masterly touch or 

 more unmistakable individuality. There is no misunderstanding his intention. 

 The lifelike likeness of the animal set in its local atmosphere is his predominating 

 endeavour. His range is of the widest, and his subjects all come alike to him ; he 

 has no preference for any particular group or family, but draws them all, vertebrate 

 and invertebrate, with power, truth, and sympathy. 



With a knowledge of the very soul of the animal such as few possess, his 

 pictures are replete with insight into character and its vivid expression, and fascinate 

 even those who may not adequately appreciate their wonderful accuracy. "We who 

 have travelled," as Mr. G. J. Millais remarks, "do not need to be told that his 

 studies from nature are correct. His lions, elephants, zebras, and antelopes are so 

 real that we feel we are gazing at them on the plains of East Africa. The land- 

 scapes are simple but intense ; sunlight is there, and the trees and grass are just 

 those that grow in the habitat of these species. Kuhnert has, as it were, got inside 

 the very skin of African life, and draws you insensibly within the charmed circle." 



In a gallery his works at once arrest attention by their vigorous realism. 

 There is .life within the frame of whatever he paints. He is the Frans Hals of 

 animal portraiture. 



He was born at Oppeln in Silesia on the 28th of September 1865, and 

 during his student days at the Academy of Berlin, was influentially advised to 

 devote himself to animal painting, for which he had evidently a special gift. He 

 began, however, as a portrait painter, and from his pictures, particularly those of 



