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THBBob Kuhn (1920-2007), Pheasant in Nebraska
About Seller
20 Winter Street
Pembroke, MA 02359
United States
Founded in 2005, Copley Fine Art Auctions is a boutique auction house specializing in antique decoys and American, sporting, and wildlife paintings. Over the course of the last two decades, the firm has set auction records for not only individual decoy makers, but also entire carving regions. Copley...Read more
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About Auction
LiveFeb 20, 2026
Lots 1-300 Copley Fine Art Auctions cinnie@copleyart.com
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- Lot Description
Bob Kuhn (1920-2007)
Pheasant in Nebraska, c. 1970
signed "Kuhn" lower left
watercolor, 16 by 24 1/2 in.
In this work, Kuhn masterfully brings the viewer down to the pheasant's eye level and, in typical fashion, the pheasant runs through the corn stalks.
Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, Bob Kuhn enjoyed visiting the Buffalo Zoo and sketching its inhabitants as a child. After studying design, anatomy, and life drawing at the Pratt Institute in New York City, Kuhn made his living working as an illustrator for various wildlife and outdoor magazines. In the early 1970s, Kuhn switched to painting full time. Kuhn's work is featured in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming; the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and the John L. Wehle Gallery of Sporting Art at the Genesee Country Village and Museum in Mumford, New York."As a game bird worthy of propagation, the ring-necked pheasant may have a longer history than any other species. In about 1250 B.C., the Romans introduced the bird into Europe from the Orient. The earliest known game-preservation law -- decreed by Kublai Khan -- protected pheasants. In 1790 Benjamin Franklin's son-in-law tried unsuccessfully to establish ringnecks in New Jersey. The first effective importation was made in 1881 when the American consul-general at Shanghai shipped twenty-eight birds to the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Twelve years later there was an open season. The ringneck is now so firmly established in America that it might almost be considered our national game bird. Nowhere has it fared better than in the Midwest, where the pheasant traditionally skulks and races under rows of tall corn. Notoriously unwilling to 'hold tight,' a cock will run ahead of a dog and gun, unexpectedly flushing with a defiant cackle when the panting hunter is off balance. A setter or pointer, so impressive in dealing with most upland birds, is sometimes vanquished by these antics. A flushing dog such as Bob Kuhn's springer, however, will relentlessly bound after the quarry to force a flush. When the bird finally leaps into the air a second pheasant may panic and fly, and since two shots may be needed to bring down one bird, repeating shotguns like the semi-automatic in this painting have now displaced the classic, more costly double for significant numbers of American upland gunners." - Robert Elman
This painting was reproduced as a print in the "Upland Game Birds of North America" series from the Remington Game Art Collection calendar for January 1971. A framed edition of this calendar accompanies the lot and measures 26 1/2 by 18 1/4 in.Provenance: Remington Arms Collection of Game Art
Robert S. Doochin Collection
Literature: Robert Elman, "The Great American Shooting Prints," New York, NY, 1972, pl. 71, illustrated.Condition
Please email condition report requests to leah@copleyart.com.
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