“In June (Im Juni)”
Julius Paul Junghanns (Austrian, 1876-1953)
Oil on canvas
Signed and dated “1913,” titled on reverse
18 ½ x 23 (23 ¾ x 31 ¼ frame) inches
 
Julius Paul Junghanns grew up in Dresden where he completed an apprenticeship as a lithographer in 1895. A year later he began his studies at the Dresden Art Academy with Max Frey and Leon Pohle. He did military service with the Royal Saxon Grenadier Regiment No. 1 in 1898. He would again serve during World War 1. From 1899, he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with the animal painter Heinrich von Zügel which continued until 1904. Junghanns described his studies with Zügel as the greatest experience of his apprenticeship. In 1903 he became a member of the Association of Drawing Artists in Munich. In 1904 - at only 28 years old - at the suggestion of his teacher Heinrich von Zügel, he was appointed head of the master class for animal and open-air painting at the Düsseldorf Art Academy for the winter semester. In 1906 he was given a professorship at the Düsseldorf Academy. In 1907 he received a gold medal at the Great Berlin art exhibition. 
 
In March 1933, shortly after power was handed over to the National Socialists, Junghanns was appointed acting director of the Düsseldorf Academy. This position lasted until the new director took office in October 1933.
 
Junghanns enjoyed the trust and appreciation of the National Socialist regime due to his traditional painting style and he regularly took part in prominent German art exhibitions. Six of his pictures alone were shown at the first Great German Art Exhibition in 1937. This association has affected the reception of his work to this day. Junghanns did not recognize the abuse that was being carried out until late. He retired and moved to Erwitteback in 1945 where he lived under hospital care for almost four years. With the help of friends and collectors, he was able to return to Düsseldorf in 1949 and set up a new studio. There he died at the age of 82.
 
Junghanns was an internationally known, traditional animal and outdoor painter who sometimes referred to himself as Pictor antiquus (old painter). 
 
His work is to be found in numerous art galleries and museums: Berlin, Hague, Munich, Düsseldorf, Bonn, Krefeld, Chemnitz, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Vienna, London, Madrid, Antwerp, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Boston, Gdansk, Königsberg, as well as many private collections around the world own Junghanns pictures.