Hyäne auf der Lauer 1905

Wilhelm Kuhnert captured this resting hyena in paint, probably sometime between the late 19th and early 20th century. I like how Kuhnert has portrayed the animal here: not quite threatening, but watchful, waiting, with the skull of some other poor creature in the foreground. It's a somber scene. It seems to me that Kuhnert understood the landscape he was painting well, as though he had lived in it. I wonder what it must have been like to be him, painting on location in Africa? It's really interesting to consider the surface of this painting. Look at the way Kuhnert has layered the ochre and sandy colors to build up the arid landscape. Imagine his brushstrokes, capturing the textures of the earth and the animal's fur. The loose application of paint gives the scene a hazy, dreamlike quality. He has made the colors vibrate. What do you think?