931 - Friedrich Reimann, Wisents in a Marsh Landscape, Zeulenroda

Friedrich Reimann, Wisents in a Marsh Landscape, Zeulenroda (1896 to 1991), oil on hardboard, signed lower right and inscribed with the place name Zeulenroda Thuer., two wisents in shallow marsh water, the left animal at the edge of the bank in shallow water, the right one in deeper water with raised tail, both reflected in the still surface, all around tall sedge grass in ochre and straw yellow, at the right a tree in summer foliage grows near a mossy root stock, at the left a weathered tree stump, behind it a hazy strip of woodland, the execution naturalistic throughout, good condition commensurate with age, paint losses in places, slight craquelure in places, image 49.5x84.5 cm (HxW), framed, frame bumped, frame width 5.5 cm Friedrich Reimann was the principal illustrator of Grzimek's Tierleben and created large-format dioramas for natural history museums; the precise anatomical observation of this work stands directly in that context. The wisent, extinct in the wild by the beginning of the 20th century and bred back exclusively from zoo animals, was a motif of particular documentary ambition for animal painters of this generation. The broad panorama format and the signature with place name identify the work as a fully executed principal piece and not as a study.