Friedrich wilhelm kuhnert biography channel

German painter

Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Kuhnert (September 18, – February 11, ) was a German painter, author and illustrator, who specialized in animal images.

After illustrating the books of Alfred Brehm, he travelled to German East Africa to observe animals in their habitat and produced numerous paintings that defined Africa for many Germans of the period.

Life and work

Kuhnert was born in Oppeln in After the end of his technical-commercial apprenticeship at the age of 17, Kuhnert was a scholarship student at the Berlin University of the Arts from to From his home in Berlin, he embarked on travels to Scandinavia, Egypt, East Africa and India to make landscape and animal studies.

His favorite motif was the African lion. In Kuhnert was the illustrator for zoologist Johann Wilhelm Haacke's book Animal Life on Earth. In , he became one of the many artists selected to provide illustrations and design trading cards for the Cologne chocolate company, Stol