Carl Rungius (1869 - 1959)
Carl Rungius came to the United States from Germany in 1894 to hunt big game in Maine. After his arrival in this country, he established his winter quarters in New York City, and a summer home and studio in Banff, Alberta, Canada.
An outdoorsman completely in love with nature, he frequently stayed away from both homes for weeks at a time, while he hunted through the untamed regions of Wyoming, the Yukon and the Canadian Rockies. For over fifty years he stalked moose, caribou and the ferocious grizzly bear; he also sought the smaller animals such as mountain sheep, goat, elk, deer and antelope.
Rungius was a great naturalist, a fine draftsman and an anatomist with thorough knowledge of musculature and bone structure. In many of his paintings he achieved the feeling of rotating movement so common to animals in a herd. His sense of color was also well developed and he used it boldly or with much sublety, as the particular situation seemed to merit.
Rungius received many honors and prizes and was elected Associate of the National Academy in 1913 and National Academician in 1920. One of his admirers was Theodore Roosevelt, who was also a personal friend. Roosevelt owned a moose done in bronze by Rungius and several of his paintings. Considering the purchase of one, Roosevelt said, "This is the most spirited animal painting I have ever seen. I'll take it." Some of Rungius' Western paintings are in the Beach Memorial at the Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vt. and the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
An outdoorsman completely in love with nature, he frequently stayed away from both homes for weeks at a time, while he hunted through the untamed regions of Wyoming, the Yukon and the Canadian Rockies. For over fifty years he stalked moose, caribou and the ferocious grizzly bear; he also sought the smaller animals such as mountain sheep, goat, elk, deer and antelope.
Rungius was a great naturalist, a fine draftsman and an anatomist with thorough knowledge of musculature and bone structure. In many of his paintings he achieved the feeling of rotating movement so common to animals in a herd. His sense of color was also well developed and he used it boldly or with much sublety, as the particular situation seemed to merit.
Rungius received many honors and prizes and was elected Associate of the National Academy in 1913 and National Academician in 1920. One of his admirers was Theodore Roosevelt, who was also a personal friend. Roosevelt owned a moose done in bronze by Rungius and several of his paintings. Considering the purchase of one, Roosevelt said, "This is the most spirited animal painting I have ever seen. I'll take it." Some of Rungius' Western paintings are in the Beach Memorial at the Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vt. and the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
