816 - Carl Zimmermann, displaying capercaillie before the wintry Brocken, Harz hunting painting

Carl Zimmermann, displaying capercaillie before the wintry Brocken, Harz hunting painting (1863 Halberstadt – 1930 Goslar), oil on wooden panel, signed 'Carl Zimmermann' lower right. A displaying capercaillie stands on a fallen tree trunk above moss-covered blocks of rock in the foreground, the tail fanned and raised, the neck stretched, the plumage in black, brown and green with white spots on the flank. All around lie further blocks of rock with pale green moss and low spruces, behind them the slope falls away to a snow-covered plateau above which the Brocken in the Harz rises with its buildings. The sky in blue with pink-tinged clouds. Age-appropriate good condition, minimal losses of paint in places. Image 50 x 71 cm (HxW), framed in a gilt-coloured ornamental frame with rocaille decoration, frame width 9.5 cm Carl Zimmermann studied under Paul Friedrich Meyerheim and Eugen Bracht, worked first in Munich, then in Berlin, and settled in Goslar in 1915, where he became the best-known hunting painter of the Harz. The capercaillie was among his recurring subjects; a painting „Capercaillie and partridge before the Schneekoppe“ is recorded, among others. Around 1900 the displaying capercaillie was the prestige subject of hunting painting: the display season counts as the most difficult and most respected hunt for feathered game, and the pictures hung accordingly in hunting lodges and gentlemen's rooms. Characteristic is the combination of the closely observed bird with a wide mountain landscape which supplies the habitat.