Musée No:325.091
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Artist: Emil Volkers
Date:1880
Emil Volkers (1831-1905) was a famous 19th century German portraitist loved by the international aristocracy, especially for his amazing horse portraits in oil on canvas. He began his career at the Dresden Art Academy, in 1852 he moved to the Munich Art Academy, where he became a student of the famous horse painters Albrecht and Franz Adam. Later from his base in Dussledorf he visited horse stables and stud farms to perfect his skills – he achieved a photorealistic accuracy which many of his contemporaries considered to be “too precise a reproduction”. In 1867 he became court painter to Prince Charles of Romania and was a favourite amongst European rulers for creating realistic paintings of their horses sometimes with their owners, occasionally in military settings. He also painted "genre" paintings of life in the Balkans and was active in the field of drawings and illustration for nonfiction books for example in the rather excellently named “Illustrations of Excellent Horse Breeds” (about 1880). Volkers won a gold medal in the Great Art Exhibition in Berlin in 1890. His sons Fritz and Karl Volkers also became known as horse painters and another son, Max Volkers, specialised in figures and landscapes.