Junghanns, Julius Paul (1876-1958), Draft Horse with Cart

Julius Paul Junghanns(1876 Vienna - 1958 Düsseldorf ), Draft Horse with Cart . Charcoal drawing on paper, 23 x 23 cm (inside measurement), 49 x 50 cm (frame), signed at lower right "Jul.[ius] P.[aul] Junghanns". Framed in passepartout behind glass.

- Slightly darkened, otherwise in good condition. Attractively framed.

Exposé as PDF

- The Burden of Life -

A muscular cold-blooded horse pulls a heavy cart up a rising dirt road. The horse is being led by a man who is almost lost in the shadow of a tree and whose physiognomy is almost completely hidden from us. The protagonist of the painting is the horse, immersed in light. Junghanns placed the tree with its far-reaching branches in the picture precisely to create a dark fund through which the light cold-blooded horse stands out all the more.

The draft horse's head is slightly lowered and its gaze is fixed on the ground, indicating its almost stoic determination to follow the path leading across the picture with a heavy step. A constant, almost unstoppable progress, in which the horse is just about to take the next step, while the lamp hanging on the back of the carriage oscillates in the rhythm of the movement and on the left edge of the picture a kind of kilometer stone testifies to the distance already covered.

The delicate border lines of the picture make it clear that Junghanns created a square picture plane in advance and adhered strictly to this format. A square is undirected, it shows no tendency to move sideways or upward. The movement of the carriage is trapped in the format. The goal, the source of light towards which the horse and the man are going, will never be reached in the inner world. All that remains is the fateful, laborious stride on the ascending path, which becomes an allegory of the path of life. Thus, the horse has an allegorical dimension that encompasses the human being walking beside it. This allegorical dimension, however, is based on the very real life of the horse of burden, whose existence is exhausted in the eternal 'advancing'.

The format makes it all the more clear that no goal can be reached on this side that would free the horse from its toil, since no distance can be covered within the image. The horse and its cart fill almost the entire picture surface. This confinement in the picture format gives the horse an immense size. Combined with the slight view from below, it is monumentalized, but does not become a radiant 'hero of the work'. Rather, the horse's 'oversize' illustrates all the more vividly the constant effort required to pull the cart, which seems all the heavier in its black tonality.

Julius Paul Junghanns was a master at using charcoal to capture the effects of light and shadow as well as the physiology and psyche of the horse. He followed in the footsteps of his mentor, Heinrich von Zügel, and combined animal and landscape painting, which he taught for decades at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. But he also goes beyond his teacher by giving the drawing an allegorical dimension that connects man and animal. The painting is therefore much more than a sketch or study; it is a work of art in the fullest sense of the word, which is why Junghanns also added his signature, which is placed within the picture, as in an oil painting.

About the artist

Born in Vienna to Saxon parents, Julius Paul Junghanns grew up in Dresden, where he trained as a lithographer from 1891 to 1895. In 1894 he began attending the Dresden School of Arts and Crafts, and in 1896 he began studying at the Academy of Arts. After a short stint in the military in 1899, Junghanns went to Munich to continue his studies at the academy under Heinrich Zügel, where he graduated in 1904. Zügel had a significant influence on Junghanns' art, and the two artists remained friends throughout their lives.

In 1902, while still a student, Junghanns became a contributor to the Jugendstil magazine Jugend . From 1903 he was a member of the Bund Zeichnender Künstler München , and in 1904 he joined the Munich Secession . Also in 1904, at the age of just 28, Junghanns became head of the class for animal and landscape painting at the Düsseldorf Art Academy on the recommendation of Heinrich Zügel, and in 1906 he was appointed professor there. He taught there for a total of 40 years. In 1905 Junghanns became a member of the progressive Viennese artists' association Hagen , and from 1907 to 1931 he also belonged to the Vienna Secession . During this time Junghanns developed into an internationally sought-after artist and was represented in numerous international exhibitions.

After his time as a soldier in World War I, Junghanns developed a broad artistic practice that included graphic art and sculpture as well as designs for jewelry and advertising. He created the annual gifts for the Düsseldorf Kunstverein and the Malkasten .

Junghanns was appropriated by the National Socialists as a supposed 'blood and soil' artist. At the First Great German Art Exhibition in 1937 alone, six of his paintings were shown. In 1941 he was awarded the Goethe Medal for Art and Science, and in 1944 Junghanns was placed on the list of "Gottbegnadeten" (blessed by God) by the Reich Ministry for Propaganda.

The death of his youngest son Rudolf on the battlefield and the realization that he had been misused by the Nazis as a propaganda artist plunged Junghanns into a deep crisis in 1945, which he endured for four years in the Marienhospital in Erwitte. Supported by friends and collectors, he returned to Düsseldorf in 1949, reestablished a studio, and became a member of the 1949 Artists' Group , which aimed to further develop figurative art.

"Junghanns is one of the most important animal painters of the 20th century. [...]. The principle of his work lies in the precise drawing as well as in the capture of the organic in the correct relationship of tonal values to each other".

- Gudrun Wessing

Selected locations of public collections that own works by Julius Paul Junghanns:

Berlin, Hagen, Munich, Düsseldorf, Bonn, Krefeld, Chemnitz, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Vienna, London, Madrid, Antwerp, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Boston.

Selected Bibliography

Thieme-Becker. Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künste, Band XIX, Leipzig 1926, S. 327.

Saur. Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon. Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker (AKL). Band 78, Berlin 2013, S. 512-513.

Gudrun Wessing: Julius Paul Junghanns. Skizzen und Gemälde aus dem Nachlass, Bielefeld 1995.