Large genre painting by German animal and landscape painter of the Munich School 

Ernst Adolph Meißner (1837 Dresden - 1902 in Munich).
Meißner received his education at the Dresden Art Academy, where he was enrolled from 1851 to 1855. His teachers were Carl Robert Kummer and Ludwig Richter. He belonged to the artistic circle of Otto Gebler, Christian Friedrich Mali and Heinrich Zügel.

Even as a young man, he traveled extensively to Switzerland, Italy, Holland and Hungary. In 1870 he settled in Munich. On November 20, 1880 he married Marie Magdalena Sofie Meier from Regensburg. This marriage resulted in the children Robert Ernst Wilhelm and Luise Anna Auguste Meißner.

Meißner became known for his landscape paintings in which he depicted the barren life of the rural population. Animals usually play a central role in the paintings. Significant works were shown in an exhibition at the Munich Glass Palace in 1902; King Albert of Saxony acquired some paintings. Even today, pictures can still be found in well-known state galleries and art houses such as the Dresden State Art Collection, the Graz State Museum, the Belvedere in Vienna, the Lenbachhaus Munich, the Amsterdam City Archives[1], as well as in private and family collections.

Literature: Thieme/Becker "Allgemeines Kuenstlerlexikon". Leipzig, 1999; Friedrich von Boetticher , List of painters of 19h century, Dresden, 1898 (both in German).

Inscription: signed lower right.

Technique: oil on canvas,  original period frame.

Measurements: unframed h 33 1/8" x w 46 7/8" (84 x 119 cm); framed h 42 1/2” x w 56 1/4” (108 x 143 cm).

Condition: in very good condition, canvas professionally relined.