Werner Wildner (Nashville, Tennessee, 1925-2004), two watercolor paintings. 1st item: Image of a mouse atop a table and nibbling a piece of Swiss cheese, with a match at his feet. Monogram signature lower left and lower right. Housed in a painted wooden frame with off white matte. Sight – 10 1/2″ H x 6 3/4″ W. Framed – 19 3/8″ H x 15″ W. 2nd item: Watercolor, gouache and pencil portrait of an owl. Monogram signature lower left. Housed in a wooden frame with grey matte. Image – 11 3/4″ H x 8 3/4″ W. Framed – 20 1/2″ H x 17 3/8″ W. Biography (courtesy Askart: The Artists’ Bluebook): Wildner was born in Germany but moved to Detroit with his family as a child and then, as a teenager, to Nashville. He served in the Army in 1944 and went on to study art briefly at the Meinzinger Art School in Detroit. He returned to Nashville to practice commercial art, but by the mid-1950s had decided to pursue his own art career. Whimsical animals and fantastical, often grotesque creatures were a recurring theme of his work. Wildner met with critical and commercial success after a 1962 exhibit of his art at the Nashville site now known as Cheekwood. However, the death of his parents and collapse of his marriage in the 1970’s led him to become reclusive in the last two decades of his life. Provenance: Private Nashville, TN collection. CONDITION: Overall excellent condition.