Heinrich Leutemann

From the list of elephant persons Family: Leutemann

Biography

☨ Heinrich Leutemann
Profession	zoo artist
Personal details
Born	1824-10-08 Leipzig in Germany

Dead	1905-12-14 Chemnitz-Wittgensdor in Germany

Residence
Country	Germany

Locations
Title	artist 1874-1905
Location	at Carl Hagenbecks Tierpark (Neue Pferdemarkt) in Germany

Title	artist -1874
Location	at C. Hagenbecks Handlungs-Menagerie in Germany

Heinrich Leutemann , zoo artist in Germany

Leutemann was born * 1824-10-08 in Leipzig Germany dead 1905-12-14 Chemnitz-Wittgensdor, in Germany .

Heinrich Leutemann (1824–1905) was was a German artist and book illustrator. He was born in Leipzig and studied there.

He was a prominent German animal painter, illustrator, and author whose work was deeply intertwined with the 19th-century global wildlife trade. He is most famous for his close personal and professional partnership with the legendary animal trader Carl Hagenbeck Jr..

Records about Heinrich Leutemann from the book Beasts and Men, by Carl Hagenbeck
In 1874 I happened to be importing some reindeer, and my friend, Heinrich Leutemann, the animal painter, remarked that it would be most picturesque if I could import a family of Lapps along with them. This seemed to me a brilliant idea, and I therefore at once gave orders that my reindeer were to be accompanied by their native masters.

The book Beasts and Men, written 1909 by Carl Hagenbeck

Records about Heinrich Leutemann from the book Animals are my life, by Lorenz Hagenbeck
One frequent visitor I remember with particular vividness. His jolly Saxon dialect still rings in my Ears. This was the famous animal painter, Heinrich Leutemann.

His pencil had recorded for us the very birth of the Hagenbeck Animal Park in the shape of a drawing of the big tubful of seals with which the enterprise began. It was a rare year in which we had no visit from the veteran artist, who was always on the look-out for a novel sketch for the Our Home magazine.

Sometimes he would bring one of his young pupils with him. How well I remember one of these, who, one morning at breakfast, found himself faced with a table problem which had him beaten. For Mother gave him a boiled egg, and the lad had actually never seen such a thing. What on earth was the proper way to open it? The young man squinted across at his teacher, but dear old Leutemann was deep in conversation with my father. So our visitor essayed a few little taps on the shell, but far too cautiously. Then, as this tip- tapping produced no result, he decided the object must be treated like a walnut, so he took it between his hands, put these between his knees, brought his legs together with a mighty clash. With a swift squelch, up spurted the golden fountain of yolk, all over my father's grey beard! Everybody at table laughed till the tears ran, while Mother did her best to pacify Father and wipe the decoration off him, after which he took it upon himself to show the embarrassed young artist how people in Hamburg ate boiled eggs.

The book Animals are my life, written 1956 by Lorenz Hagenbeck

Leutemann served as a key artistic chronicler and advisor for the Hagenbeck family business:

He produced numerous popular illustrations documenting the arrival of rare Animals at Hagenbeck's Tierpark, such as the famous Ankunft Junger Leoparden bei Hagenbeck in Hamburg ("Arrival of Young Leopards at Hagenbeck's").

Leutemann is often credited with suggesting that Hagenbeck pivot toward ethnographic shows (Völkerschauen) in 1874, which involved displaying indigenous people in "authentic" settings alongside exotic Animals. His dramatic paintings of animal captures and caravans helped fuel the public's fascination with zoological gardens and distant lands.

Leutemann was a prolific book illustrator, often focusing on zoological and ethnographic themes:

Graphic Pictures of Native Life in Distant Lands (1888): An ethnographic study for children featuring illustrations of various Human races and their cultures.
Animals from the Life (1887): A collection of 255 accurate, colored illustrations of Animals in their natural states, intended as an educational introduction to zoology.
Historical and Mythological Scenes: Beyond Animals, he was known for large-scale historical engravings, such as Hannibal Crossing the Alps (often featuring war elephants) and scenes of Roman amphitheaters.
Reynard the Fox: His 36 steel engravings for the 1855 version of Reineke Fuchs are considered among his most significant artistic achievements.

Records about Heinrich Leutemann from English Wikipedia

He produced lithographs for instructional posters. In the 1850s, he worked on pictures of Animals for a zoological Atlas. Some of his drawings include Ankunft Junger Leoparden bei Hagenbeck in Hamburg ("A box of young leopards arrives at Hagenbeck's Animal Show in Hamburg"), Tierkauf in Afrika ("Buying Animals in Africa"), Riesenschlangen-Käfig im Zoologischen Garten Hamburg (Giant snakes' cage in the Hamburg Zoo), and Manatees ("Manatees"). Hagenbeck's Tierpark still brings visitors to Hamburg.

With a professor named A. Kirchoff, who wrote the text, Leutemann produced Graphic Pictures of Native Life in Distant Lands, illustrating the Typical Races of Mankind (1888). This was meant to be an ethnographic study for older children, and the book described and illustrated indigenous peoples of the world: the Aborigines of Australia, the Papuans, the Polynesians, the Eskimos, the American Indians, the Hottentots, the Negros, the Nubians, the Arabs, the Indians, the Chinese, and the Japanese.

He also worked with classical themes; his drawings include Battle of the Amazons, the Acropolis at Athens, and The astronomer Ptolemy putting up a stone, on the authority of the Aristotle commentator Olympiodorus (6th century), tablet in the Temple of Serapis in Canobus commemorating his major astronomical achievements (1876)

He died at Chemnitz-Wittgensdor.

English Wikipedia

Books where Heinrich Leutemann is mentioned

1: (1909) Beasts and Men: A Fascinating Chronicle of Animal Training, Exploration, and the Birth of the Modern Zoo by Carl Hagenbeck:ISBN: 1667305883 Amazon.com Amazon.de
2: (1956) Animals Are My Life by Lorenz Hagenbeck:ISBN: B0000CJIY8 Amazon.com Amazon.de

Reference list

References

Koehl, Dan, (2026). artist Heinrich Leutemann in Germany. Elephant Encyclopedia, available online retrieved 7 June 2026 at https://www.elephant.se/person.php?id=4883. (archived at the Wayback machine)

Sources used for this article is among others:

Beasts and Men, by Carl Hagenbeck
The book Animals Are My Life by Lorenz Hagenbeck 1956
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Leutemann

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