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The Life of a Landscape
Artist
Scenario Sheet 4: Carl Rungius
Description:
· Carl Rungius was a wildlife
painter who moved from Germany to America, and settled in New York City.
· Jimmy Simpson was a mountain guide and outfitter working in Banff.
He was also an amateur painter and art collector. Jimmy saw a copy of a
wildlife painting by Carl Rungius in a magazine. Jimmy wrote to Rungius,
inviting him to come to the Rockies.
· Rungius visited Banff for the
first time in 1910 because of Jimmy Simpson's invitation. The two men
became friends.
· Rungius returned every summer until 1957 to paint
the scenery and animals.
· He built himself a studio in Banff and
called it "The Paintbox." He could see wild animals - bears, deer, whole
herds of elk - from his studio window. He painted large works in the
studio when he wasn't out sketching in the mountains.
· Jimmy Simpson
and Rungius collaborated on a painting of a big horned sheep. They both
signed it.
· Rungius became friends with other Banff residents and
painters including Peter and Catharine Whyte. They sometimes went out
painting together.
· Rungius gave Peter and Catharine one of his
paintings as a wedding present.
· Rungius was
so
impressed by the Rocky Mountains that he started paying more attention
to painting the landscape rather than always focusing on the animals.
Quotes:
"You have to keep
painting outdoors; if you paint outdoor scenes in your studio your colour
invariably gets too warm, too hot. Only if you paint outdoors do you see
the cool silvery tones that are the true colours of nature." -Carl Rungius
c. 1930-40
"For really fine [mountain]
scenes, get texture of rocks using sand in paint. Also use a very scruffy
brush to texture the paint. Paint first coat (texture coat) with a fast
drying paint of oil and sand mixed in foreground trees, rocks and
[mountains.] No sand in sky or water." -Carl Rungius, 1959
"For the first time I felt the
urge to paint straight landscape; until then I had felt the landscape only
as a setting for big game. But the grandeur of the mountains, with
marvelous atmospheric conditions, changed all that… I felt I had found my
country." -Carl Rungius
Possible Characters:
·
Carl Rungius
· Jimmy Simpson
· Peter Whyte
· Catharine Whyte
· Animals that Rungius painted such as mountain sheep, mountain goats,
bears, elk
Messages:
· Rungius was
famous for painting pictures of large wild animals.
· Rungius' life
and art changed dramatically after he visited Banff.
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