Numerous trips took Wilhelm Kuhnert to Egypt, East Africa and India, where he made intensive studies of landscapes and animals in wilderness. In 1891, he set off on his first expedition to the then colonies of "German East Africa". The motifs he created there caused a sensation at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition in 1893. During his months-long stays in Tanzania and elsewhere, he captured the wilderness of Africa in numerous drawings and sketches characterized by vibrancy and immediacy. After the outbreak of the First World War and the final abandonment of the colonies in 1919, Kuhnert finally refrained from further travels outside of Europe. He paid close attention to the world of African animals, both with regards to habitats and instinctive behavior. He used a number of drawings as models for paintings, but also transferred some of them to printmaking and used them as illustrations for his publications about his African travels. The majestic lions became his favorite motif and later trademark, earning him the name "Löwen-Kuhnert". Most recently, the Schirn-Kunsthalle in Frankfurt dedicated a major exhibition to him in 2018/19 entitled "König der Tiere – Wilhelm Kuhnert und das Bild von Afrika (King of the Animals - Wilhelm Kuhnert and the Image of Africa). [KT]