Dimensions: 35.5 x 25.5 cm
signed and dated below: 'Wojciech Kossak | 1922'.
handwritten description on the reverse: 'Dr. Ronatowski (?) [illegible fragment ] | 690 - 21'; paper auction sticker and inventory sticker
Origins
private collection, Europe
VAN HAM Kunstauktionen auction house, Cologne, November 2017
private collection, Poland
Biography
He was the son and pupil of Juliusz Kossak, father of Jerzy, also a painter, as well as the poet Maria Pawlikowska - Jasnorzewska and the writer Magdalena Samozwaniec. He was educated at the Cracow School of Fine Arts, the Munich Academy and in Paris. In 1895-1902 he stayed mainly in Berlin, where he worked for Kaiser 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 and completed portrait commissions. In 1913 he was appointed professor at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts. He was co-author of panoramas: Raclawice (1893-94), Berezina (1895-96), Battle of the Pyramids (1901) and sketches for the unrealized Samosierra (1900) He was an unparalleled painter of battle and historical scenes. In them he glorified the Polish army: uhlans, cavalrymen, legionaries. He perfectly mastered the art of painting horses.
