(Miesenbach 1807–1862 Vienna)
A mother bear and her cubs with a stag, 1845, signed F. Gauermann, oil on panel, 73.7 x 58.5 cm, framed (frame damaged), with slight cracking to top centre, (Rei)

Provenance:
Collection of Franz Xavier Mayer sen. (1811–1893), Vienna;
Collection of Franz Xavier Mayer jun. (1858–1923), Vienna;
Collection of Norbert Mayer (1906–2000), Vienna and Feldkirch, until 1960;
Dorotheum Vienna, 17 March 1960, lot 37;
Private Collection Vienna;
Dorotheum Vienna, 20 April 2010, lot 44;
European Private Collection.

The action takes place high up in the mountains. Rock faces loom down on both sides. Snow-covered mountain tops peek out from behind the partly dead, bent trees. The clouds form an atmospheric bridge with the dramatic fight occurring in the foreground. A mother bear with her young is ravaging a deer at a brook below the mighty rock. The fight has already ended. The deer breathes out its last gasp of life, as the bear rises in triumph. The two cubs still look very clumsy, and everything seems to be a game for them. This playful component represents the special charm of the scene, and takes away some of its severity and drama. The animals are full of vivacity and depicted in a lifelike manner. The landscape, encircling the scene like an arena, underscores the dramatic outcome of the situation. Gauermann stages the fight in an almost theatrical manner. The wild animals and the rocks behind them are effectively illuminated, whereas the rest of the surroundings are darker in colour. Gauermann lets the contrasting hues merge into each other: the interplay of light and colour is masterful. The arrangement of the animals is deliberately composed, their heads forming the shape of a rhombus. Indeed, the antlers of the hunted prey are particularly decorative.
Friedrich Gauermann considered realness and personal contemplation to be particularly important. He had a deep affinity with nature and had been studying animals in the wild since childhood. He also took part in hunting parties time and again and was able to observe these animal fights from very close quarters. The artist also had a small menagerie in Miesenbach, filled with foxes, deer and golden eagles. Even in the case of the bears, the artist was able to fall back on observations and sketches made in the Imperial Zoo at Schönbrunn. Personal experience was thus the starting point for his work, only undergoing compositional changes within the artist’s imagination. Gauermann’s animal fighting scenes, to which he had devoted himself since the late 1820s and which had contributed substantially to his early success, triggered universal admiration and found international recognition.