Exhibit at St. Petersburg museum features paintings that captures wildlife on canvas

May 18, 20242 Mins Read

“Survival of the Fittest” exhibit at St. Pete museum

Visitors can view paintings from the late 1800s and the early 1900s at the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art. The last day to visit the “Survival of the Fittest” exhibit is May 26.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Before photography allowed people from all over the world to see wild animals from all over, artists traveled to those locations to capture on canvas the wildlife in far-reaching places.

The James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art is showing some of those fantastic works in their exhibit entitled “Survival of the Fittest.”

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“These artists worked during the late 1800s and the early 1900s,” shared Emily Kapes. She is the curator of Art at The James Museum. “The big four, these artists, they were a major influence on current artists.”

The Big Four, as she described them, are German-American painter Carl Rungius, German painters Richard Friese and Wilhelm Kuhnert, and Swedish artist Bruno Liljefors.

“They presented a vision of wildlife that had not really been seen before in art,” said Kapes. “It valued the animal, it’s natural behavior, and it’s natural habitat.”

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The paintings captured what we today would expect from a wildlife photographer. In fact, the inspiration of much of that sort of work comes from these artists.

“It’s really interesting to see elephants charging, to see bison battling, to see the emergence of birds from the grasses into the sky,” explained Kapes.