Otto Gebler was part of a group of 19th-century painters who devoted themselves predominantly to the rural genre. Apart from the precise anatomical and textural reproduction of animals, their natural movements and their placement on the canvas, the challenge in this field was to create unique compositions that stood out from other works. Gebler primarily accomplished this by adding comic, anecdotal elements of a subtlety bordering on Spitzwegian sensibilities. He often turned harmless animals into key actors in the painting’s narrative, providing his simple animal scenes with a touch of genre imagery. In this painting, the gentleman strolling through the countryside in his outdated, urban-Biedermeier tailcoat seems to feel threatened by a small flock of sheep, which he struggles to fend off with his umbrella. Unimpressed, one of the sheep sticks out its tongue at him. In this work, Gebler skillfully combines ambient landscape imagery, animal portrayal and genre painting. Having first studied painting in his hometown of Dresden, he continued his studies in Munich in 1858 where he joined the prestigious class of Karl Theodor von Piloty. From 1864 onwards, he contributed his works to exhibitions in Dresden, Berlin and Munich as well as Paris, London and Vienna. His humorous portrayals of animals rank him alongside Albert Brendel and Anton Braith as one of Germany’s most acclaimed animal painters. [KT]