dimensions in light passe-partout
signed l.d.: JKossak | 1874 (initials initialed)
The motif of a rider leading a saddled horse, repeated many times over the years in various compositional arrangements, was an opportunity for the artist to present the noble steed in its full glory. The man leading the Arabian, always white, was himself riding a mount of dark color. A loose horse in a rich row was driven for a dignitary under the line of battle or as a spare horse after the loss of the previous one. These are always static and dignified scenes. The beautiful white Arabian in the gilded row is captured in a graceful and light pose with a bent, swan-like neck. The artist has brilliantly captured all the model features of the breed - a small, slightly elongated head, strongly muscled, slender limbs and a high-set and characteristically raised tail.
Image described and reproduced in:
- H. Stępień, Artyści polscy w środowisku monachijskim w latach 1856-1914, PWN, Warsaw 2003, p.180, il.48.
Juliusz Kossak (Wiśnicz 1824 - Kraków 1899) - painter and illustrator - was one of the most popular Polish artists of the 2nd half of the 19th century. He began his drawing and painting lessons in Jan Maszkowski's studio in Lviv; later he drew a lot from nature while visiting noble estates in Ukraine, Podolia and Volhynia. In 1852 he was in Vienna, Hungary and St. Petersburg, before settling permanently in Warsaw. He spent the years 1856-1860 in Paris, where he was friends with Horace Vernet. Returning to Warsaw in 1862-1868, he was artistic director of the "Illustrated Weekly". In 1869, he moved permanently to Krakow, from where he would make further trips to Munich to paint in the atelier of the batalist Franz Adam. Kossak was primarily an accomplished watercolorist; he used oil techniques less frequently. He painted historical and battle paintings, genre scenes illustrating the life and traditions of the noble court and the customs of the Polish people. But the real heroes of his paintings were horses, whose movement, temperament, character and individuality he was able to masterfully depict. He was also the author of many illustrations for magazines and books, perfectly hitting both the atmosphere of literary works and the longings and needs of the audience - readers of Wincenty Pol's Song of Our Land, Henryk Sienkiewicz's Trilogy , Pan Tadeusz and Adam Mickiewicz's poems.
