Edmund H. Osthaus

Edmund Henry Osthaus was born in Hildesheim, Germany and began his early studies at the Royal Academy in Dusseldorf under the tutelage of Andreas Muller, Peter Jansen, E.V. Gebhardt, E. Deger and Christian Kroner. He immigrated to the United States in 1883, and, by 1886, he had become principal of the Toledo Academy of Fine Art. After the school closed, Osthaus devoted his entire time to painting. Hunting and fishing were his passion and the subject of most of his paintings. Known primarily for his depictions of sporting dogs, the artist’s quality never varied.  As one of the few American sporting painters, he was greatly admired by wealthy families such as the Vanderbilts and the Morgans. Such families commissioned large scenes in order to decorate large and spacious walls in their grand homes.  The hunting scene is significant among the artist’s works. Osthaus generally created one or two dog compositions, and on rare occasions, paintings that include three dogs. His works draw the viewer in such a way that we can almost hear the dogs’ yelping, splashing through muddy streams, and smell the dew or feel the morning mist and the intensity and excitement of the moment.   Osthaus died at the age of seventy at his hunting lodge near Marianna, Florida. His works are held by the Toledo Museum of Art and are collected by hunting and fishing aficionados all over the world.