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Lot description
Eugen Osswald (1879-1960) German, "Hirsch" Horse Portrait Oil on Canvas. Image of a beautiful white Arabian horse's head, wearing a brown bridle. Signed and dated bottom left, partially obscured by the ornate frame. Signature and somewhat decipherable writing in pencil on the back of the protective board cover, along with the title. Overall Size: 24 1/2 x 19 1/2 in. Sight Size: 18 1/4 x 13 3/4 in. Eugen Osswald was born on January 22nd, 1879 in Stuttgart, Germany into a family of builders, and his original goal was to become a stonemason before taking an apprenticeship at 18 to be a draftsman under Heinrich Deichsel. However, after completing his military service in the Kaiser Friedrich Infantry Regiment No. 125, he enrolled at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, and began a distinguished career as an animal painter and illustrator, working primarily in oils and especially known for his images of horses. After a period in Bern and Basel, during which he studied with Angelo Jank and Heinrich von Zügel, he moved to Paris in 1906 before embarking on a journey through the Middle East and Eastern Europe traveling with large circuses, using their animals for his most famous studies. His work rapidly developed an Impressionist style while in France, with his broad brushstrokes and focus on emotive faces were captured on hundreds of paintings of foxes, capercaillies, roebucks, deer in their natural habitat, horse races in Riem, sheep, washerwomen in Cairo, and Russian children. After returning to serve in the Regiment in World War I he settled in Munich, frequently exhibiting his works at the Glass Palace and fulfilling countless commissions, but he produced little during the Nazi years and the 1950s, dying in relative obscurity on February 17th, 1960.