Reconnaissance

Artur Grottger

Basic information

ID: Ж-244
Author: Artur Grottger
Name: Reconnaissance
Date of creation: 1862
Country: Austrian Empire
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 39.5 x 49.7

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: battle painting
Provenance: Collection of Lviv City Gallery
Exposition: Lozinski Palace

Information about author

Author: Artur Grottger
Artist's lifetime: 1837–1867
Country: Austrian Empire
Biography: Artur Grottger was born in 1837 in the village of Otynevychi in the Lviv region (former Ottyniowice, Eastern Galicia). He studied at the Lviv School of Painting of Jan Maszkowski and the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and Vienna (1852–1858). Artur Grottger is a leading representative of Polish Romanticism, as well as a painter, periodical illustrator, graphic artist, and watercolourist. He is the author of six patriotic art cycles regarding the January Uprising against the Russian occupation of Poland of 1863, portraits, and local history materials. Artur Grottger died after a severe illness in Amélie-les-Bains, France, in 1867. He was buried in the Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv (field No.95).

Object description

Five horsemen are depicted crossing a shallow body of water. They are a light cavalry reconnaissance party infiltrating the enemy's position at dusk. In the foreground are two officers: one on a white horse, wearing a white cloak and a helmet with a crest. The horseman to his left wears a uniform with epaulettes and a konfederatka hat. The other cavalrymen wear dark blue uniforms and shakos with red hackles. All the figures in the painting are shown from behind. A yellowish-red twilight sky covers half of the composition. The last rays of the setting sun are reflected in the water, tinting everything around. The artist skilfully conveys the atmosphere of tense silence in which the reconnaissance takes place.

Inscriptions

At the bottom right is the author's signature: "Artur Grottger 862".

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Reconnaissance

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