Heinrich von Zügel dedicated his life to animal painting, in particular to the depiction of livestock and domestic animals. A reminiscence of his childhood is certainly the fact that sheep and cattle played a leading role in his works throughout his life. While his painting is still academic at the beginning, he later attained a more impressionist mode of expression. For his paintings he left his studio and captured the play of light for his paintings in the outdoors. With rapid brushstrokes and impasto application of paint, Zügel created lovely animal portraits that describe the relationship between humans and animals. As professor at the art academies in Karlsruhe and Munich, he familiarized his students with his painting style in the so-called "Zügelschule". He spent the summer months in the countryside where he made numerous landscape and animal pictures. These stays served the rural population as a worthwhile source of income, as they lent him particularly beautiful or well-behaved animals, while the so-called "Malbuben" (painter boys) carried the painting utensils or posed as models themselves. [JK]