Self-portrait in lancer's uniform
41.0 x 31.2 cm - oil, mahogany board
Signed p.d.: Adalbert von Kossak 1891
On the reverse, two illegible circular stamps; at the upper edge, a circular paper sticker of the Antonin Sponar framing company in Prague.
Reproduced and exhibited painting:
- Barbara Kokoska, Horses in Polish Painting, Kluszczyński Publishers, Krakow 2010, p. 133, il;
- Napoleonic Wars 1812-1815, Museum of Romanticism in Opinogóra, Opinogóra 2013, p. 2, il.
- Juliusz Kossak (1856-1942) | Wojciech Kossak (1856-1942) [exhibition catalog], Polish Museum in Rapperswil, 20 June - 24 September 2018, pp. 58, 100, il. s. 61;
- Juliusz Kossak (1856-1942) | Wojciech Kossak (1856-1942) [exhibition catalog], Polish Library in Paris, 28 IX - 28 X 2018, pp. 50, 124, il. 53.
Wojciech Kossak was also fond of portraying himself; an early self-portrait is of a still-unconfident young man leaning on the hilt of a saber, but later conterfects are almost always images of a handsome, boisterous, thoroughbred schooner, often in military uniform. Such is the 1891 dated Self-Portrait in the Attire of a Lancer of the Principality, showing a uniformed horseman on a dirt road.
Stefania Krzysztofowicz-Kozakowska, in Juliusz Kossak..., op. cit. p. 50.
Already in his earliest creative period, Wojciech Kossak achieved his first and immediately high honors, also gaining considerable popularity. His works dating from the 19th century appear very rarely on the art market, hence the offered Self-Portrait in the Uniform of a Lancer of the Duchy of Warsaw must be considered a collector's rarity.
Painted on mahogany board, the exquisite image of the officer, dated 1891, bears the signature Adalbert von Kossak. The artist often signed works painted and sold abroad in this way. The name "Adalbert," which was the monastic name for St. Adalbert, was adopted into common use as a foreign-language equivalent of the name "Wojciech."
Wojciech Kossak (Paris 1856 - Krakow 1942 ) - widely known painter, seen primarily as a great battle artist. The son and pupil of Juliusz Kossak, he was educated at the Cracow School of Fine Arts, the Munich Academy and in Paris. In 1895-1902 he stayed mainly in Berlin, working for Kaiser Wilhelm II. He traveled extensively, including to Spain and Egypt, where he made sketches for intended panoramas. In later years, he traveled to the United States several times doing portrait commissions. In 1913 he was appointed professor at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts. During the years of World War I, he served in the military. He was co-author of panoramas: "Raclawice" (1893-1894), "Berezina" (1895-1896), "Battle of the Pyramids" (1901) and sketches for the unrealized "Somosierra" (1900). With temperament and freedom, he created extensively painted dynamic battle scenes, historical scenes, genre scenes and numerous portraits. He was fond of painting horses. His paintings, glorifying the Polish military and the heroism of soldiers, both ancient and contemporary to the artist, appealed to the patriotic feelings of the public and enjoyed great popularity.
