Name/Title
Lions on the ProwlEntry/Object ID
2001.01.33Description
Painting
Painting (1913) by Ferdinand Karl Grebestein after 1886 Richard Bernhardt Ludwig Friese painting.
This image depicts two lions on higher ground, crouching low on the rocky terrain, and intently focused on possible prey out of sight on the plains below. The painting of a female and male lion hunting together would have been popular with the big-game sports hunting fraternity in both Europe and North America in the 18th and into the 19th century. Friese was said to have traveled to Syria and Palestine, and given the landscape depicted in this work, along with the possible range of the lions ca. 1880s, the location depicted, while unidentified, could well have been the Middle East.Type of Painting
EaselContext
The iconic “king of beasts,” the lion (Panthera leo), is a well-recognized large cat, second in size only to the tiger and long a symbol of power, courage and strength depicted by artists for thousands of years. In early history, lions ranged across all of North America and Africa, through the Balkans, and across Anatolia and the Middle East into India. Some 12,000 years ago, lions still ranged across much of Europe, Asia, and Africa, but now they are found mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, some wild and many in national park reserves. A small population also lives in a sanctuary in India. In the 21st century, the species is considered vulnerable.Made/Created
Artist Information
Artist
Richard Bernhardt Ludwig Friese (1854-1918)Role
PainterArtist
Ferdinand Karl Grebestein (1883-1974)Role
PainterDate made
1913Time Period
20th CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Born in Gumbinnen, Germany, Richard Bernhardt Ludwig Friese first trained as a lithographer, and was a student (1874-80) and later, in 1896, a professor at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. He also took private lessons with Paul Meyerheim (1842-1915) and Karl Steffeck (1818-1890), and opened his own studio. He often visited the Berlin Zoo where he found numerous animals to study and draw. He also traveled widely, reportedly to the Orient, Syria, Palestine, Norway, Spitzbergen and Canada. Friese acquired a reputation as one of the best Naturalist wildlife painters in Germany, along with his colleague artist Carl Rungius (1869-1959) who became the most important big game painter and the first career wildlife artist in North America, and William Kuhnert (1865-1926), considered one of the most important German animal painters of his time and whose favourite motif was the African lion.
Friese was especially noted for his accurate and dramatic depictions of the lion's life in the desert, of moose and also of native deer in the German forest. Friese was awarded medals at the Great Berlin Art exhibitions in 1885, 1886 and 1900, and elected a member of the Berlin Academy in 1892. He died in Bad Zwischenahn, Germany.
_________________________
Landscape, portrait and copy artist Ferdinand Karl Grebestein was born in Niederhone, Germany. Grebestein studied at the School of Applied Arts in Kassel, Germany. Later working in Dresden, he exhibited at the 1943 Great Dresden Art Exhibition. Two years later the bombing of Dresden destroyed Grebestein's studio and his work. Grebestein was a member of the National Association of Visual Artists and the Dresden Art Cooperative. He died in Eschwege, Germany.Inscription/Signature/Marks
Type
Signature, StampLocation
Signed lower right: nach R. Friese F. Grebestein 1913Transcription
Stamp on canvas verso lower centre:
Copie Nach / No 2459 / der Konigl / Gemalde-Galerie / zu Dresden / 1913
Stamp on stretcher, centre vertical: Rodolf Kneifel Dresden....Dimensions
Dimension Description
ImageHeight
125.7 cmWidth
194.3 cmAcquisition
Acquisition Method
Legacy collection - detail unknown
