Dimensions: 24 x 32.5 cm
Signed and dated lower right: 'Wojciech Kossak 1927'
Inventory stickers and an auction label on the reverse
Provenance
DESA Unicum, December 2016
private collection
Biography
He was the son and student of Juliusz Kossak, the father of Jerzy (also a painter), the poet Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, and the writer Magdalena Samozwaniec. He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Kraków, the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, and in Paris. From 1895 to 1902, he lived mainly in Berlin, where he worked for Emperor Wilhelm II; he also painted for the court of Franz Joseph II. He traveled extensively, including to Spain and Egypt. In later years, he traveled to the United States several times to fulfill portrait commissions. In 1913, he was appointed professor at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts. He was a co-author of the panoramas: Racławice (1893–94), Berezina (1895–96), The Battle of the Pyramids (1901), and sketches for the uncompleted Samosierra (1900). He was an unrivaled painter of battle and historical scenes. In these works, he glorified the Polish army: the uhlans, the light cavalry, and the legionnaires. He had mastered the art of painting horses to perfection.
