Carl Rungius was a German-born American artist of the first half of the 20th century. He painted big game animals and beautiful landscapes of Western Canada and Western America in plein-air.
He was also known for his illustrations and etchings.
Background
Carl Rungius was born on August 18, 1869, in Rixdorf (now Neukölln) borough of Berlin, Germany. He was a son of a pastor Heinrich Rungius and Magdalene Fulda. There were eight more children in the family, seven girls and one more boy.
From his childhood he spent in agricultural Britz, Carl was surrounded by picturesque countryside views. Carl’s father and grandfather were both fascinated by art, nature, and taxidermy, so, it was logical that the young boy took interest in hunting. This passion later had a great influence on his canvases.
The choice of the future profession wasn’t hard to Rungius. At an early age, he decided to become an artist. The decision was reinforced by the exhibition of a notable German wildlife artist Richard Friese which Carl visited as a teenager.
Carl’s father didn’t share his son’s artistic ambitions and would like him instead to become a minister. However, he met the halfway upon condition that Carl would learn the profession of a house painter.
Education
Carl Rungius received the general education at a gymnasium of Burg bei Magdeburg town where he had been sent to live with his widowed grandmother.
In order to fulfill his dream of becoming a painter, he entered the Berlin Academy of Arts in 1888. At first, the young man had to attend the course on ornamental design. He didn’t like it much and spent a lot of time in the Berlin Zoo where he developed his wildlife painting skills sketching animals. With an intention to explore better the anatomy of animals, Rungius visited the local glue factory. It was unpleasant for him, but he found it necessary to develop his artistic skills. The artist left the institution in 1890.
From 1891 to 1894, Carl Rungius was apprenticed as a wall and woodwork painter. He also studied art at the School of Applied Arts. One of his mentors was Paul Meyerheim.
Carl Rungius started his career from a one-year military service which he began in 1891.
A turning point in his life and career became hunting trips to Maine in 1894 and a year later to Wyoming. Rungius’s traveling lasted about four months during which he sketched a lot his trophies and pursued the exploration of animals’ anatomy.
This time was enough for the artist to fall in love with the natural environment of the region. The year following his first visit to Wyoming, Carl Rungius relocated to the United States completely. Rungius returned to Wyoming regularly since then.
The highly detailed depictions of the wildlife in its natural environment made by Rungius caught an eye of the first director of the New York Zoological society, William Hornaday who helped the artist to enter the world of illustration and to receive a lot of commissions from wealthy patrons.
From then on, Carl Rungius illustrated many magazines, books, and campaigns initiated by the hunters, naturalists and animal advocates.
By 1909, Rungius left the activity and concentrated on easel painting. Although, his illustration stayed in a high demand and was reproduced many times.
One of such replicas titled ‘Wary Game’ impressed a tour guide Jimmy Simpson from Canadian Banff so much that he invited the author to sheep hunt at no cost. Carl Rungius accepted the invitation and in 1910 he visited the Canadian Rockies for the first time. The trip provided the artist with a huge number of sketches and paintings. The picturesque nature of the region made Rungius return there again and again.
From 1912 to 1936, the artist illustrated an important collection of American wildlife for the New York Zoological Society.
In 1921, he established a summer studio in Banff. He lived most of the time in New York City, and from April to October, every year until his death, he traveled around the mountains and then worked in his six-roomed Banff workshop.
In addition to the depictions of wildlife, Carl Rungius also portrayed the local people and their everyday life he saw during his trips.
Rungius widely exhibited his artworks around the United States including the shows at the Society of American Artists, at the National Academy Design and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts among other art places.
Quotations:
"An artist has to shift for himself and do his own thinking."
"After you've painted a couple of thousand paintings, then you can begin."
"You have to keep painting outdoors; if you paint outdoor scenes in your studio your color invariably gets too warm, too hot. Only if you paint outdoors do you see the cool silvery tones that are the true colors of nature."
"I could not think of any more suitable place than Banff in Alberta. A province which has practically every species within its borders. Easy to reach and a cosmopolitan, broad-minded town right in the wilderness, at the same time offering all the comforts of a big city."
"I had the good fortune to have a single-track mind."
Membership
Camp Fire Club
,
United States
1896
Salmagundi Art Club
,
United States
1907
Alpine Club of Canada
,
United States
1910
National Academy of Design
,
United States
1920
Painters of the Far West
,
United States
Society of Animal Artists
,
United States
New York Zoological Society
,
United States
Personality
Physical Characteristics:
Carl Rungius was a man of medium height.
Interests
sport, hunting
Connections
Carl Rungius married Louise M. Fulda on June 15, 1907.
Carl Rungius: The Complete Prints
A catalog raisonné briefly traces the career of the German-born wildlife artist, shows his etchings, and discusses his approach to printmaking
1989
Carl Rungius: Artist & Sportsman
This book coincides with a travelling exhibition of Carl Rungius’s wildlife paintings and awesome landscapes of the west organized by the Glenbow Museum of Calgary, Alberta