Piotr Michałowski (1800 Kraków - 1855 Krzyżtoporzyce), Huzar austriacki na koniu (Eustachy Dunin - Wąsowicz), ca. 1840 (?) (Other titles appearing in literature: Portrait of Mr. Wąsowicz; Portrait of Eustachy Wąsowicz; Portrait of Eustachy Wąsowicz's brot

oil, canvas, 57 × 47 cm
on the reverse, on the lower bar of the painting loom, a paper sticker dated 1913 with the inscription: TOWARZYSTWO PRZYJACIÓŁ SZTUK PIĘKNYCH W KRAKOWIE/, Author: Michałowski Piotr, hr. Countess Morstin Teresa/ Krakow/ Work entitled: Portrait of brother-in-law Eust. Wąsowicz/ Type: oil 1913, red stamp with inscription: EXHIBITION, Horse in Polish Painting and Sculpture"/ IN KRAKOWIE", second stamp with date 1913 On the left loom strip handwritten in blue crayon: Hr. Morstin, on top W - Wa 451
Provenance:
private collection, Poland
Exhibited:
- The Horse in Polish Painting and Sculpture, Society of Friends of Fine Arts in Cracow, July 1913
- One hundred years of Polish painting 1800-1900, Cracow 1929
- Piotr Michałowski Exhibition of drawings, watercolors and oil paintings, held on the 100th anniversary of the artist's death at the Society of Friends of Fine Arts in Cracow, 1955
Reproduced and described:
- The Horse in Polish Painting and Sculpture, cat. exhibition, Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Sztuk Pięknych w Krakowie,
July 1913, Cracow 1913, item 143.
- F. Klein, One hundred years of Polish painting 1800-1900, cat. exhibit, Kraków 1929, item 198.
- M. Sterling, Piotr Michałowski, Warsaw 1932 p. 85
- T. Dobrowolski, H. Blum, Piotr Michałowski catalog of an exhibition of drawings, watercolors and oil paintings, held on the 100th anniversary of the artist's death at the Society of Friends of Fine Arts in Cracow, Cracow 1955, item 95.
- T. Dobrowolski, On the painterly work of Piotr Michałowski, [in:] "Sztuka i Krytyka", 1956, fig. 32
- J. Sienkiewicz, Piotr Michałowski, Warsaw 1959, fig. 35 s. 145
- A. Zeńczuk, Piotr Michałowski 1800-1855. catalog of the exhibition of the artist's works on the bicentennial of his birth, Kraków 2000, item XII, p. 210

In the work presented in the catalog, the artist focused mainly on the portrayed figure of the horseman. Eustachy Dunin Wąsowicz, of the Swan coat of arms, was his brother-in-law - the husband of Michalowski's sister Lucja, heir to the Oksha and Chycha Wielka estates, an officer in the Polish army and rotmaster of the Austrian hussars. However, while painting the steed, Michałowski modeled his earlier equestrian portrait of Ludwik Popiel, dating from 1832, i.e. the early period of his work. The work offered at auction, however, differs from that one in its freer painterly form, typical of the painter's mature period, as well as in the more strongly drawn line of the mount's legs. The perfectly mastered motif of a rider on a horse, walking alone, galloping, or climbing or standing, runs through the entire oeuvre of this most prominent representative of the Romantic trend in Polish nineteenth-century painting. From the equestrian portraits of acquaintances, through the Kirasjerzy series initiated in Paris, equestrian images of ancient knights, hussars, cavalrymen or images of Napoleon riding on horseback, to the Hetman series, which the artist intended to paint for the Wawel chambers. "He was (...) Michałowski was an outstanding animalist. Horses, which he drew and painted with enthusiasm already in his youth, remained his favorite motif until the end of his life." (J. K. Ostrowski "Between and Paris and the Galician province. The painterly path of Piotr Michałowski." [in:] "Piotr Michałowski 1800-1855," Krakow 2000, p. 28.)