Gerhard Ernest Untermann, Sr. was born in Branderburg, Germany in 1864. Among his many accomplishments were more than 100 drawings of prehistoric life for the Field House of Natural History in Vernal, Utah. He died in Vernal in 1956.

A young adventurer, Untermann traveled by boat from Germany to North and South America and Africa. He settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin , but visited Vernal, Utah as a prospector in 1919 when he met Earl Douglas, who discovered a dinosaur quarry near Jensen, Utah. Untermann then returned to Milwaukee where he worked for the Milwaukee Zoo for 4 years. During his time in the Midwest, he studied at the Layton Art Institute, the Chicago Art Institute, and under William Hein who was then famous for his panoramic paintings of the Battles of Gettysburg and Manila Bay.

In the 1940s, Untermann moved to Utah where his son was the director of the Dinosaur Museum in Vernal. He contributed more than 100 paintings of high Uintahs, rock formations, canyons, and rivers. Cretaceous Sauripods and Orthopods (1952), a series of paintings of prehistoric life in Utah, is featured in the Springville Museum of Art permanent collection.

Biographical information on this page was adapted from information provided by Untermann's former student, A. Paul McFarland.