Wilhelm Busch became particularly well known for his humorous stories. The gifted draftsman and caricaturist he was, Busch created illustrated stories that were published from the 1860s onward. While his parents wanted their son to become an engineer, Busch was determined to become a painter. A lack of conscientiousness, however, led to him dropping out of university in Düsseldorf. Instead he transferred to the academy in Antwerp, which brought him closer to the much revered old masters such as Rembrandt, Rubens, Adriaen Brouwer and Frans Hals. Fascinated with their lightness and free treatment of color and their earthy palette, he developed his own style. In his paintings as well as in his picture stories, animals appear alongside people, to whom he devoted no less attention in his drawings and paintings. As in the figure scenes, it is the common animals that Busch considered worthy of depicting. [KT]