Signed l.d.: Otto Kirberg | (...)dorf
On the g. strip of the painting loom centrally number: 345, on the sides two paper stickers of a German gallery;
on the left slat a detached collector's sticker.
Scene depicts winners of a shooting competition. Graphic based on Otto Kirberg's composition The Winner(Der Preistrager), by H. Gedam, is reproduced in: Die Gartenlaube Illustriertes Familienblatt. Jahrgang 1899, published by Ernst Keils Nachfolger, Leipzig 1899, pp. 344-345.
Otto Karl Kirberg, German genre painter settled in Düsseldorf. He began his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts there in 1868, under the direction of A. Müller and C. Müller. He interrupted his studies
during the Franco-Prussian War (1870/1871), but later continued with W. Sohn and E. von Gebhardt. From Düsseldorf, where he settled permanently, he went to Holland repeatedly and for longer stays, painting there genre scenes of a serious, tragic or cheerful nature. From 1890 to 1900 he temporarily lived in Munich, from where, however, he returned to Düsseldorf. He was a member of the Artists' Association (Kunstgenoschenschaft) there. In the years 1876-1890 he participated
in the exhibitions of the Academy in Berlin, and in 1893-1916 he took part in the Great Berlin Art Exhibitions. He also exhibited many times in Munich's Glaspalast (1883-1914) and in Düsseldorf. His paintings, based on insightful observation of scenes from the lives of sailors, seamen, fishermen, were very popular. Already the artist's first major painting, entitled Sacrifice of the Sea, exhibited at the Berlin Academy exhibition in 1879, was awarded a gold medal and purchased for the National Gallery's collection. He also painted scenes in interiors, referring to the old 17th-century paintings of the Dutch masters. A large, posthumous exhibition of the artist's works was held in 1926
at the Kunsthalle in Düsseldorf.
