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*Size with matt: 37,2x41,7cm/14,6x16,4in

Executed in the late 18th century, this study of two hunting dogs is a work of well-known Swiss artist Johann Conrad (Konrad) Gessner, who was active at the turn of the 19th century.

Johann Conrad (Konrad) Gessner (1764 Zurich - 1826 Zurich) began his studies with his father and Heinrich Wüest. With Salomon Landolt, the governor at Greifensee, he discovered his talent as a horse and battle painter. 1784-86 in Dresden, he spent time with Anton Graff and learned from him. He received lessons at the academy with Adrian Zingg and Johann Christian Klengel; made copies after paintings by Philips Wouwerman, Abraham Bloemaert, Georg Philipp Rugendas and Jakob Ruysdael. But primarily he was occupied with nature studies on art trips with Johann Christian Reinhart and Adrian Zingg, which lead him to Bohemia. He successfully participated in the exhibition at the Dresden Academy in 1785 and 1786, which earned him recognition as a battle painter.

From 1788 to 1789 he was in Rome and Naples. He worked together with Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, Johann Heinrich Lips, Alexander Trippel and Jakob Philipp Hackert. Friendship with Jacques Sablet, with whom he shared an apartment in Rome. Numerous nature studies were made on hikes in the Volsk Mountains (Monti Lepini) and in Abruzzo. Back in Zurich, Gessner joined the artist society founded in 1787. His contributions to the painting books showed him as an original watercolorist. Between 1796-1804 he stayed in England and Scotland. From 1799-1803 Rudolf Ackermann in London published a series of 30 aquatint etchings of picturesque depictions of the most excellent troops in Europe based on Gessner's models, etched by the Swiss Conrad Ziegler, H. Merke and the Englishman John Bluck. In London, Gessner was interested in etching and tried the Crayon manner. Philipp André introduced him to lithography. The contacts to English artists have not yet been explored. Favorite motifs since his stay in England have been parforce hunts, horse pastures, mail wagons, stable interiors, blacksmiths and village taverns.

Gessner sent his works to the exhibitions of the Royal Academy in the years 1799-1803 and the Zürcherische Künstlergesellschaft 1799-1826 with paintings. In 1804 he finally settled in Zurich. His preference for moving equestrian pieces is most convincingly expressed in washed drawings and watercolors, where Gessner's quick and gripping brushstrokes can unfold freely. The interrelation of landscape and figures, patches of color and object forms is always decided in favor of the movement and changeability of the forms through color. Despite his modest role as a painter, who covered up some weaknesses in the technical mastery of the means with exaggerated chiaroscuro effects (the oil paintings are darkened by the tar content of the colors) and a dry gouache manner, Konrad Gessner belongs as a draftsman, but above all as a watercolorist in his best pieces on the harbingers of romanticism ("Dragoons", around 1785, Kunsthaus Zürich). The battle scenes with shy or prancing horses (cavalry attack, Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett) are reduced to a few lines and spots.

The paintings of his late style are indebted to the Biedermeier period (Bernhard von Waldkirch: «Konrad (Conrad) Gessner» in "Lexikon zur Kunst in der Schweiz", 2017; translated from German).

Condition: good; in original old matting

Creation Year: late 18th century

Measurements: UNFRAMED: 12,8x21,0cm/5,0x8,3in

Object Type: Framed watercolors

Style: Old Master paintings

Technique: watercolor on paper, laid (glued) on an old mount; matted, unframed

Inscription: monogrammed "CG"; inscribed on old mount