"Lion hunting" is a great skill.

(1884 Neustadt an der Haardt - 1957 Bad Dürkheim) "Lion Hunt". Original title: A scene from North Africa with two Bedouins on horseback in battle with a lion. Created by Dill in 1921, this early work is executed with a virtuosic, rapid, broad, free brushstroke and impasto application of paint. It is a stunning tribute to the famous lion hunt paintings by Rubens and Delacroix. In such depictions of riders and lions, Dill was able to demonstrate his great mastery in capturing fleeting movements. Depictions of riders and horses were, alongside predatory cats, central themes in his work, where Dill studied at the Munich Academy from 1908 to 1914 and as a master student under Heinrich von Zügel from 1909 to 1913. In the early 1920s, Dill repeatedly engaged with the motif of the lion hunt; in 1922, Dill presented a similar "Lion Hunt" at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition, and in 1922/23, the Thannhauser Gallery in Munich organized a Dill exhibition featuring a series of his latest paintings, in which the present work may have been included. In 1923, the influential art journal "Die Kunst für alle" (pp. 259-265) published a major article on Dill, written by art historian Dr. Willy Burger, who also writes about his lion hunt paintings: "Among the artist's best works are undoubtedly those images of the highest intensification of movement, of struggle, where the pursued predator, horse, and rider coil together, forming a picture of the most thrilling, touching life (...) The bold, majestic gesture of the battle scenes fully corresponds to the weight and energy of the brushstroke, illuminated by multicolored flashes, rhythmically dividing the canvas into broad, large areas." Oil on cardboard. Signed and titled on the reverse with a label, dated 1921; label of the Moderne Galerie Thannhauser, Munich (1921-1928) with number 3853. 47 cm x 69.5 cm. Framed. Provenance: German private collection, Rhineland-Palatinate.