Friedrich wilhelm kuhnert biography sample
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Wilhelm Kuhnert German, 1865-1926
Friedrich Wilhelm Kuhnert began his career as apprentice to the Berlin painter and graphic artist Paul Friedrich Meyerheim (1842-1915), who specialised in painting animals, and this provided him with a thorough grounding in closely observed zoological detail. When Kuhnert attended the Berlin University of the Arts between 1883 and 1887, the tutors noted his skill in rendering animal fur and anatomy and advised him to devote himself to animal painting. Kuhnert enthusiastically complied, and sought subject matter in extensive travels through Europe, Africa and Asia. In particular, he made four expeditions through areas of Central Africa which were then still largely unexplored by Europeans. Despite working in difficult conditions, he was able to make studies directly from nature, working quickly to capture the essence of the region's animals in their native habitat, rather than drawing those in captivity, as was the case for most wil
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Wilhelm Kuhnert – Rediscovering an Artist
This self-portrait is among 120 etchings reproduced in Kuhnert’s 1925 book, Meine Tiere (My Animals).
On April 30, 1906, Wilhelm Kuhnert and his expedition of 80 porters were encamped along a wide river, less than a day’s march from the East African coast and a steamer that would take him back to Germany. As he sat by the campfire, listening to the familiar sounds of the African night, wrote on the frayed yellowed pages of his diary: “Goodbye my beloved, beautiful land. It is with a sad heart that I leave you. You have offered everything to me and you bowed to me. From day to day, outside influences will change you. It won’t be long and you will be defeated. You can’t resist change; you are much too weak to chase us humans away. Therefore, give what you can and we will gratefully enjoy it while we can.”
Over his lifetime, Wilhelm Kuhnert enjoyed four major expeditions to his beloved Africa, taki
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Frederick August III, the gods King of Saxony, traveld to northeast Africa from late February to early April 1911. He was accompanied bygd up to 13 members of his court, as well as scientists and artists, such as the painter Wilhelm Kuhnert. The illustrious company traveled on the fast steamer "Großer Kurfürst" from Genoa to Suez, through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to Port Sudan. They continued on nation route and on the White Nile with a smaller steamer. The trip was for education (visiting the famous archaeological sites in Egypt, e.g. Abu Simbel, Philae Island, Thebes, Luxor, Karnak) and hunting (antelopes, buffaloes, hippos, giraffes, etc.). The hunting expedition started in Khartoum and went to Southern Sudan, where the southernmost point was reached at the Giraffe River (Bahr el Zeraf).
In the Archive for Geography there are sju magnificent albums bound in leather with 700 photographs. Most of them were taken bygd the king himself and are an interesting example of a noble edu