Survival of the Fittest: Envisioning Wildlife and Wilderness with the Big Four

This international exhibition features wildlife art masterworks created by an influential group of painters known today as the Big Four. Working during the late 1800s and early 1900s, these artists established a vision of wildlife and wilderness that remains with us today and influenced generations of artists interested in painting wildlife in the 20th century.​

The members of the Big Four are American Carl Rungius (born Germany, 1869 – 1959), Germans Richard Friese (1854 – 1918) and Wilhelm Kuhnert (1865 – 1926), and Bruno Liljefors (1860 – 1939) from Sweden.

Survival of the Fittest: Envisioning Wildlife and Wilderness with the Big Four, Masterworks from the Rijksmuseum Twenthe and the National Museum of Wildlife Art is curated by Adam Duncan Harris, Grainger/Kerr Director of the Carl Rungius Catalogue Raisonné and organized by the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

Credit: Overview from museum website

Image credit:  Polar Bear and Eiders on the Coast, n.d., Richard Friese, oil on canvas. Collection of the Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede, Netherlands