ADOLF SCHREYER (French / German, 1828-1899). The Chase, Oil on canvas. Signed Ad. Schreyer lower right. Framed. - Sight: 23.2 x 33 inches; Estimate $70,000-90,000
PROVENANCE Goupil's, New York Private collection, Chicago Marshall Field & Co., Chicago Thomas H. Hoatson, Jr., Michigan (acquired from the above in 1910) Private collection, Michigan, grandson of the above Sotheby's, New York, 18 April 2008, Lot 124 / Sothebys's confirmed the authenticity of the lot (thanks to Dr. Christoph Andreas)
ARTIST PROFILE: Adolf Schreyer was a German painter, associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. He studied art first at the Städel Institute in his native town, and then at Stuttgart and Munich. He painted many of his favourite subjects in his travels in the East. He first accompanied Maximilian Karl, 6th Prince of Thurn and Taxis through Hungary, Wallachia, Russia and Turkey; then, in 1854, he followed the Austrian army across the Wallachian frontier. In 1856 he went to Egypt and Syria, and in 1861 to Algiers. In 1862 he settled in Paris, but returned to Germany in 1870; and settled at Cronberg near Frankfurt, where he died. Schreyer was, and is still, especially esteemed as a painter of horses, of peasant life in Wallachia and Moldavia, and of battle incidents. His work is remarkable for its excellent equine draughtsmanship, and for the artist's power of observation and forceful statement; and has found particular favour among French and American collectors.
