The print on which this page is based, 5 1/4" x 7 3/4" in size (image size only), was for sale on eBay by 'martin2001' of Virginia. (it sold for U.S. $9.99 on Jan. 1, 2002). I think the purchaser on Ebay made a fine buy, do you not agree! Jim Martin has an amazing number of antique engravings for sale through his eBay store. I enjoyed seeing what he has for sale & you probably would also. His images are of consistent good quality which I trust is good for sales! Jim says that only 5 to 10 percent of a tiger's hunting rushes are successful. And that tigers average 40 to 50 kills per year, or 1 kill every eight days. Interesting!

When I first wrote this page, I could not correctly read the artist's name on the lithograph and therefore had no data to give you about the artist. I now learn that the original was the work of Wilhelm Kuhnert (1865-1926). Wilhelm won a scholarship to the Berlin Academy of Art in 1883 & was trained there by Richard Friese, a prominent animal artist who believed that an artist needed to study animals in their natural environments ~ rather than in zoos. Kuhnert first studied & painted the animals of his native Germany & of neighbouring Switzerland. The sale of reproductions of his work permitted him to travel in 1891 to East Africa to paint & sketch the wildlife of that region. He went to Africa again in 1905 & 1911-12, and on safari he then visited German and English colonial territories in South & East Africa. In 1906, he toured India & Ceylon (today's Sri Lanka). From his trips he returned with extensive sketches & fieldnotes of the flora, fauna and native peoples of the various regions, & these were the basis for oil paintings created later in his Berlin studio. His work was very well received. In 1911, he visited the Sudan with King Frederick of Saxony; & in 1916, he worked in the Bialowies, Czar Nicholas II's private hunting preserve in Russia. He was recognised as an artist throughout Europe & also in the United States. And in 1904, he had won the Gold Medal for Art at the World Exhibition of that year.

I am told that Wilhelm Kuhnert, along with Bruno Liljefors, the distinguished painter of European wildlife, and Carl Rungius, the prominent painter of North American big game, were the pre-eminent triumvirate of painters of African birds & animals.

You can access some data about the artist & his works here.

And a few more of Kuhnert's prints that I came across in my travels. European Bison, Penguins, Leopards, & the complete engraving used on this page. I saw a fine Kuhnert painting of some elephants at a watering hole. Would like to find a good scan of that image.