Author: Jerzy Kossak
Title: Somosierra (1930)
Technique: oil, canvas
Dimensions: 69.5 x 100.5 cm
Dimensions with frame: 92.5 x 122.5 cm
Signed and dated l.d.: "Jerzy Kossak | 1930".
On the reverse: stamp of Jerzy Kossak with the coat of arms of the Kossak family and stamp of the artist with confirmation of the authenticity of the painting [faintly visible].
Artwork description:
The Battle of Somosierra (1808) went down deeply in the history of European history.
It was the charge of the Polish Cheval Legers of the Imperial Guard against the Spanish army commanded by Benito de San Juan. The battle soon ended with the capture of the pass and the paving of the road to Madrid, for Napoleon's further Spanish campaign.
The theme of the Battle of Somosierra was repeatedly taken up by battle painters, both foreign (including. Horace Vernet), but above all, due to the great merits of their compatriots - Polish, to mention only the famous canvas by Piotr Michałowski from the collection of the National Museum in Cracow, works by January Suchodolski and Stanisław Bagieński from the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw, or numerous examples of battle episodes from the oeuvre of Jul, Adalbert (one may recall here the idea, started at the end of the 19th century, of this artist and Michal Gorstkin-Wywiórski to produce together the panorama "Somosierra") and finally also Jerzy Kossak.
The offered painting by Jerzy Kossak from 1930 depicts a fragment of the pass moments after the battle. In the autumn landscape in the foreground, the artist showed a deserted, now silent row of enemy cannons with traces of blood of the fallen and wounded. In front of and between the cannons are drawn the bodies of soldiers and their faithful horses, the horror of death is further fueled by individual elements of uniforms - caps in the colors of the 1st Regiment of Cheval Legers-Lansjers of the Imperial Guard, which fell from the heads of the combatants. Above the narrow battlefield there is still dust stirred up by the hooves of horses rushing past a moment ago and smoke from cannons being fired. On the left side of the composition there is an approaching group of horsemen with the figure of Napoleon at the head - the emperor, full of respect for the Polish soldiers, was advancing behind the army observing the results of the attack with appreciation. The very next day Napoleon was said to have shouted in honor of the Poles, "Honor the bravest of the brave!".
The work refers to the work of the artist's father, Wojciech Kossak, who painted not only the episodes of the high tempo charge itself, but also the landscape for a moment after the Battle of Somosierra itself, examples of which in the artist's era were also sometimes reproduced on postcards. In the present painting by Jerzy Kossak, offered at auction, attention is drawn not only to the subject matter itself, but also to the format and technique - canvas ground was not very common in Jerzy Kossak's work, and as it has been considered nobler than cardboard for centuries, it is evidence of the importance of the composition to its author himself.
Jerzy Kossak's biography is available on the Krakow Auction House website [SEE].
If you would like to sell paintings by Jerzy Kossak, please contact us [LINK].
