After completing his studies in Dusseldorf, Edmund Osthaus came to the United States in 1883, settled near his parents, who had moved from their native Germany to Ohio, and took a post as chief instructor at the Toledo Academy of Fine of Art. When the school closed, Osthaus, a keen hunter and angler, went on to fame as the foremost American painter of sporting dogs. Osthaus followed dog shows and sporting exhibitions across the nation, visiting shooting and fishing lodges, and executing commissions all along the way.
            Hunting Scene is a classic Edmund Osthaus sporting watercolor. Osthaus often painted dogs in pairs, contrasting breeds and coloration, and is especially noted for his ability to convey the glossiness of the canines’ coats in watercolor and for his portrayals of setters and pointers on high alert, as they are in Hunting Scene. In order to suggest the tension of the moment, the artist renders the environment, the grasses and trees of this thicket, with energetic, rhythmic brushstrokes. This kind of naturalism, that is, realism made to serve the subject, is another characteristic that makes Osthaus’s work so special.

-James D. Balestrieri