Gustave MUSS-ARNOLT
1858–1927, USA

Muss-Arnolt was born in Tuckahoe, NY, in 1858. He spent most of his professional life in New York City and Tuckahoe, although little is known of his professional training. He was a noted painter of sporting and gun dogs, although he executed compositions of various other canine breeds. He also painted waterfowl, upland game and other animal subjects including horses. A noted example of his equestrian work was his 1885 foxhunting portrait The Meadow Brook Hounds Meet at the Old Westbury Pond on Long Island, NY commissioned by Augustus Belmont, Jr., M.F.H. The composition includes master huntsman and staff, a pack of fifteen couple, and the field; in all, more than twenty-eight horses with ladies in side saddle habit and two horse-drawn vehicles, a drag and a trap. This painting was reproduced as a colored lithograph printed with a key naming all riders and horses at the meet, including Theodore Roosevelt. Muss-Arnolt's picture of a pointer was reproduced as an illustration in Part V of Dwight W. Huntington's (qv) book In Brush, Sedge and Stubble: A Picture Book of the Shooting-fields and Feathered Game of North America published in 1898 by The Sportsman's Society. Muss-Arnolt also wrote and illustrated a series of articles about canines, dog shows, and kennels for Harper's Weekly. Known for his expertise in matters relating to dogs, he was a respected show dog judge in the United States, England, and Germany. He served as a director of the American Kennel Club in New York City from 1906 to 1909. He was also involved with the Pointer Club of America, the Great Dane Club of America, and the American Dachshund Club.

Muss-Arnolt exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York City, showing Waiting in 1880, Siesta and Three Old Bachelors in 1881, A Royal Pair in 1886, Hard Pressed: Beagles Chasing a Rabbit in 1887 and Steady, Boys!: "Quail Shooting in North Carolina" in 1894. The Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventory of American Paintings lists a number of his works, among them Thoroughbred, Setters on a Point, and German Shepherd. The Genesee Country Village & Museum in Mumford, NY, has his Playfair and Judge, a pair of foxhound portraits, and his Major W. A. Wadsworth, M.F.H., and the Genesee Valley Hounds, all commissioned in 1890 by Major Wadsworth. The National Sporting Library in Middleburg, VA, has his set of eight original sketches for the Meadow Brook Hounds of 1885. His work is also in the collection of the American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog in St. Louis, MO. His Steady, Now... is in the Eleutherian Mills Historical Library in Wilmington, DE.

Muss-Arnolt died in Avon, MA, on 9 February 1927.

Source: http://www.redfoxfineart.com