Carl Brenders "Black Sphinx" Signed Limited Edition Lithograph 278/950, Mill Pond Press, 1993

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A pristine, never framed impression of Carl Brenders' celebrated black leopard portrait, hand signed in pencil by the artist and … Read more A pristine, never framed impression of Carl Brenders' celebrated black leopard portrait, hand signed in pencil by the artist and numbered 278 from the sold out edition of 950. Published by Mill Pond Press of Venice, Florida in June 1993, the image was reproduced from Brenders' 1991 mixed media painting on board and printed on museum quality, acid free, pH neutral coated paper at Herzig Somerville, Ltd. of Toronto, the same fine art press trusted by Robert Bateman and the top wildlife publishers of the era.

Brenders titled the piece Black Sphinx because the leopard's inscrutable gaze reminded him of the great Egyptian statue, an enduring symbol of mystery. The painting captures a melanistic leopard (Panthera pardus) at rest in dry golden grass, its pale green eyes locked on the viewer. The contrast between the deep blue black coat and the warm tangle of grasses shows Brenders at the height of his powers, with every whisker, blade, and highlight rendered in his signature hyperrealist detail.

Carl Brenders (Belgian, b. 1937) is regarded as one of the finest wildlife painters of his generation. Trained at the Fine Arts Academy in Antwerp and at Berchem, he first gained recognition illustrating the acclaimed European book series The Secret Life of Animals before beginning his long partnership with Mill Pond Press in the 1980s. He was honored as the 24th Master Artist at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum's prestigious Birds in Art exhibition in 2002, and a thirty painting retrospective, Artistry in Nature, opened at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History before traveling to museums in Cleveland, Louisville, and Shreveport. His work is the subject of the Harry N. Abrams monograph Wildlife: The Nature Paintings of Carl Brenders and is held in major wildlife art collections in North America and Europe.

This example comes as a complete Mill Pond Press folio: the print, the original Certificate of Authenticity, the publisher's artist biography sheet, the Black Sphinx title and story insert, and the original presentation folder bearing the embossed silver Mill Pond Press 20th anniversary seal. Complete, documented examples like this have become genuinely difficult to find as the edition has dispersed over the past three decades. See less