JOSEPH WOLF (1820-1899)

Extremely rare sculpture by the great natural history artist Joseph Wolf (1820-1899). Born in Mörz, near Münstermaifeld, in Rhenish Prussia, in 1820, Wolf showed from his early childhood a talent for wildlife art. After an apprenticeship as a designer in a firm of lithographers, he met Eduard Rüppell, the ornithologist and explorer, and later executed the drawings for Rüppell's Systematische Uebersicht der Vögel Nord-Ost-Afrikas (1845). This brought him further illustrative work, before being invited to London in 1848 by the secretary of the Zoological Society of London. There he worked on Robert Gray's Genera of Birds (1844-1849). This led to Wolf’s association with John Gould and the illustrations for Birds of Great Britain. ’His personal knowledge of the habits and actions of wild animals in the field enabled him to depict them on canvas with great trueness to nature’ (ODNB). Subsequently, Wolf drew for the Zoological Society of London’s Proceedings, as well as for the ornithological journal Ibis, and for many other works. Although well-known through his association with Gould as an ornithological artist, the Proceedings contained many of Wolf’s zoological subjects, and, although he did not write the text, Zoological Sketches, issued in two series (1861 and 1867), and Life and Habits of Wild Animals (1874), should be considered as Wolf’s own. He studied wild animals carefully in the field, as well as those housed in captivity. Many of his pictures are executed with exacting realism, the textures of feathers and fur rendered with both accuracy and sensitivity.

The present lot is highly unusual, for Wolf is not known for sculpture. However, for the Royal Academy Exhibitions of 1876 and 1877, Wolf executed casts made from three models: a Wild Boar; ‘Suspicion’, a Lioness with two cubs alarmed by an unseen danger; and the present lot, a Bear with a honeycomb. ‘Although [Wolf] was not altogether unpractised in the art of modelling … one would hardly expect to find such a complete mastery over means and material as represented by these three miniature animals. Not only are the anatomy and actions first-rate, but the texture of the different coats is admirably given’ (Palmer, p.222, with current lot illustrated). Palmer believes very few casts were made from Wolf’s models. A.H. Palmer. The life of Joseph Wolf: animal painter. London: Longmans, Green, 1895.