A Goose and a Gander with their Goslings Honking in Alarm as Two Foxes with their Cubs Emerge from the Rushes

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein German

mid-18th–early 19th century

Not on view

Impending violence contrasts with a lushly serene natural setting in this highly finished drawing of foxes threatening a family of geese. The image derives either from "Gänsegeschichten" (The Legend of the Geese), a fable the artist wrote around 1803, or from Goethe's more famous "Reineke Fuchs." Intended as a satirical commentary upon human folly, the work demonstrates how the close literary friendship established between Tischbein and Goethe in Italy continued after both had returned to Germany.

Artwork Details

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Provenance

Title: A Goose and a Gander with their Goslings Honking in Alarm as Two Foxes with their Cubs Emerge from the Rushes
Artist: Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (German, Haina 1751–1829 Eutin)
Date: mid-18th–early 19th century
Medium: Pen and brown ink, brush and brown and gray wash over black chalk, watercolor and bodycolor
Dimensions: sheet: 18 13/16 x 14 7/16 in. (47.8 x 36.7 cm)
mount: 21 7/8 x 16 7/8 in. (55.5 x 42.8 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Purchase, Didier Aaron Inc. Gift, 2003
Object Number: 2003.111
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein

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Two Caricature Heads of Men, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein German, Pen and brown ink — Two Caricature Heads of Men
Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein
after 1794

Diomedes, bust and shoulders, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein German, Engraving — Diomedes, bust and shoulders
Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein
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Frontispiece for Heft IV of "Homer nach Antiken gezeichnet", Göttingen: Heinrich Dieterik, 1801–05 and Stuttgart: J. G. Cotta, 1821, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein German, Etching with black chalk; touched proof impression — Frontispiece for Heft IV of "Homer nach Antiken gezeichnet", Göttingen: Heinrich Dieterik, 1801–05 and Stuttgart: J. G. Cotta, 1821
Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein
ca. 1796

Man's Fortitude, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein German, Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, over graphite — Man's Fortitude
Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein
late 18th–early 19th century

Profile Portrait of Miss Wieling

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein

late 18th–19th century

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