“Horse and Chickens in Front of an Old House”
Hugo Muhlig (German, 1854-1929)
Oil on canvas
Signed “Hugo Muhlig”
Catalog of Works No. 123
16 ¾ x 12 ¾ (21 ½ x 17 ½ frame)
 
Growing up in Dresden, Hugo Muhlig was first taught by his father the painter Meno Muhlig and then became a master painter at the Dresden Art Academy. 
 
After moving to Dusseldorf, Muhlig broke with all his earlier influences of realism and developed his own looser, impressionist-influenced style concentrating on landscapes and genre scenes. In this new style, Muhlig began to explore new ways of painting. Although his paintings are generally of small and medium sizes, they are characterized by great detail and perfect reproduction of bright, immersive sunlight created by pure and unadulterated color. 
 
Mühlig was a regular visitor to the artist’s colony at Willingshausen, a picturesque town on the banks of the river Schwalm in the Hesse region of Germany. The surrounding landscape of rolling hills and valleys, with a distinct liquid light, had attracted artists since the 1830s making it one of Europe’s oldest artistic colonies. Mühlig painted the rich variety of the local community, in particular the lives of rural laborers, but also musicians, soldiers, trappers, as well as nannies with their charges. Such compositions are markedly uncontrived, capturing the essence of daily lives that are at once plausible and spontaneous.
 
His pieces can be found in numerous museum collections throughout Germany including Berlin, Cologne, Dusseldorf, etc.