Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wolf, Josef
WOLF, JOSEF (1820–1899), animal painter, the eldest son of Anton Wolf, a farmer and Hauptmann of Mörz, near Münstermayfield, in Rhenish Prussia, and his wife Elizabeth, was born in Mörz on 21 Jan. 1820. He was educated at the school at Metternich, and from very earliest days exhibited that love of nature and its portraiture that distinguished him throughout life, sparing no pains in the acquisition of subjects, and showing great ingenuity in improvising drawing materials. After leaving school he worked some time on the farm, but at length his father was induced to let the ‘bird-fool’ follow his natural bent, and he was apprenticed, when sixteen, for three years to the Gebrüder Becker, lithographers at Coblenz, where he was soon employed as designer, principally of trade circulars. On the expiration of his apprenticeship he spent a year at home, and next accepted a temporary engagement as wine-gauger. He then, when unsuccessfully seeking work at Frankfort, made the acquaintance of Rüppell, the traveller and ornithologist, from whom for the first time he received encouragement and an introduction to the naturalist Kaup at Darmstadt. Passing to that town, he obtained employment with a lithographer, and in his overtime worked for Rüppell, executing drawings for the ‘Systematische Uebersicht der Vogel Nord-Ost-Afrikas.’ Subsequently getting work for Schlegel and Wulverhorst's ‘Traité de Fauconnerie,’ he was able to give up lithography, and removed to Leyden to carry on the task. An attack of ague compelled his return about 1843 to Darmstadt, where he attended the art school, going in 1847 to study at the Antwerp academy.
In February 1848, affairs being unsettled on the continent, Wolf came to London, whither his fame had preceded him, and at once found employment at the British Museum, illustrating Robert Gray's ‘Genera of Birds,’ and afterwards assisting Gould with his ‘Birds of Great Britain.’ In 1849 his first picture for the academy, ‘Woodcocks seeking Shelter,’ was accepted and hung on the line. His career as an illustrator now began, and he drew for the publications of the Zoological Society, for ‘Ibis,’ and for many other works. Two books, though he did not write the text, may be considered specially his: ‘Zoological Sketches,’ issued in two series, 1861 and 1867, and ‘Life and Habits of Wild Animals,’ with letterpress by D. G. Elliot (London, 1874, fol.), which was reissued in 1882 as ‘Wild Animals and Birds: their Haunts and Habits.’ In 1860 he had taken a studio in Berners Street, thence he removed in 1874 to The Avenue, Fulham Road (afterwards Boehm's studio), but, finding this too far from the Zoological Gardens, went a few months later to the Primrose Hill studios, Fitzroy Road, Regent's Park, where he died unmarried on 20 April 1899.
Of kindly genial nature and a keen sportsman, visiting Scotland and Norway to shoot, he had the greatest aversion to wanton slaughter in ‘sport.’ He loved and studied his subjects, and his acquaintance with the habits and actions of wild animals from personal observation enabled him to trace their forms upon canvas with a fidelity to nature that has never been excelled. In the opinion of Sir Edwin Landseer he was, ‘without exception, the best all-round animal painter that ever lived.’
[Palmer's Life of J. Wolf, 1895, with portrait, sketches, and a complete bibliography of his work; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Artist, May 1899.]