Waterbok

Waterbok (Waterbuck) by Wilhelm Kuhnert, painted in 1903, depicts the large African antelope that Kuhnert had encountered on his East African expeditions. The waterbuck's distinctive appearance — its shaggy coat, ringed horns, and white rump patch — made it a striking subject for natural history painting, and Kuhnert rendered it with the same fidelity he brought to lions and giraffes. The Rijksmuseum Twenthe's collection of Kuhnert's animal paintings from this period forms a significant archive of early-twentieth-century European wildlife art drawn from direct African field study rather than second-hand sources.

Kuhnert applies his methodical approach, building the waterbuck's coat texture through careful observation of light and shadow on the coarse hair. The surrounding vegetation and water are suggested with broader, more atmospheric strokes, situating the animal in its natural habitat without overdetailing the background.