Title: Carl Rungius (1869-1959), Caribou
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 47 x 49 1/2
Frame dimensions: 53 x 55 1/2 x 2 1/2
Notes: Widely recognized as the premier painter of North American wildlife, Carl Rungius was born in Germany in 1869 and classically trained at the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin. He first came to North America in 1894 on a hunting trip to Maine and stayed on to spend the following summer hunting in Wyoming.

Those experiences, along with the opportunity to study and sketch animals at the Bronx Zoo, led to a highly successful career as an illustrator for the leading outdoor publications of the day. By 1904, however, Rungius had ceased illustrating entirely to work full time as a studio artist.

That same year, naturalist Charles Sheldon invited Rungius on a four-month expedition to the Yukon where he first witnessed caribou in the wild. Rungius would later observe even more caribou after 1910 when he started traveling to Banff, Alberta, Canada. Banff became a second home for Rungius, where he built a house and studio known as “The Paintbox.” At this point, caribou began to appear regularly as subjects in his paintings.

Painted circa 1925-1930, Caribou showcases Rungius’s strong sense of design, coupled with his knowledge of anatomy, born of years of experience in the field. His expressive handling of the subject makes the animals one with both the landscape depicted and the compositions in which they are placed. The painting is bold and vigorous in color and brushwork. Rungius sets the caribou in a snowy landscape juxtaposed against a blue sky and a background of a sunlit pinkish hillside.

The painting has been in a prominent New York family collection and has never been exhibited to the public (aside from when it was sold ca. 1930 at Arthur H. Harlow & Co., Inc, New York, NY (label verso)).
This work will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné, currently being prepared by Adam Duncan Harris, Ph.D., Grainger/Kerr Director of the Carl Rungius Catalogue Raisonné.

The painting appears to be in overall very good condition for its age. There is scattered minor craquelure throughout the foreground and background, an area of more visible craquelure above the shoulder of the right front caribou with 2 pin dot losses of paint. There is a 1/4 inch area of paint loss at the lower center left of the painting, 1 1/2 inches above the frame edge. The paint layer is very stable throughout. There is some possible dirt/dust visible at the corners and frame edges. The painting has been examined under blacklight and does not show any indication of inpainting. The frame is believed to be the original to the painting and is in good condition with minor general wear and tear and a 1/4 inch area of loss on the right side near center.

oil on canvas

signed lower right: C. Rungius