Hermann Freese

Johann Oskar Hermann Freese, a painter of animals and hunting scenes, was born in Pommerania in 1813. He was destined by his father to be a farmer, in spite of his early inclination to art, but in his 34th year he devoted himself, after many heavy misfortunes, to painting as his vocation. He visited for a short time the atelier of Wilhelm Brücke, then that of Carl Steffeck in Berlin. In 1857 his first work, Stags Fighting, appeared. His subjects of study were field and wood, and principally hunting, which he loved passionately. He died at Hessenfelde, near Fürstenwald, in 1871, of brain fever, which he contracted whilst out shooting in trying to cross a river when in a heated state. He is very happy in his bolder designs, but less so in his idyllic representations. Among his works are especially to be mentioned, Deer Fleeing, Stags attacked by Wolves, and a Boar Hunt, all in the Berlin National Gallery.