material: oil on cardboard
dimensions: 21,2 × 26,5 cm
description: Kossak’s painting illustrates an episode from the war between France and Spain (1808–1814). Napoleon began the campaign in the Iberian Peninsula by invading Portugal in 1807 and a year later turned on its ally, Spain. In May 1808, after a rising of the people in Madrid had been bloodily put down, citizens of all the Spanish provinces rose up in rebellion against the French. It was the first war for independence in the modern era fought to such a large extent by partisans, guerrilleros. Several units of the army of the Duchy of Warsaw took part in Napoleon’s invasion of Spain: infantry regiments and lancers of the Legion of the Vistula, Polish 1st Light Cavalry Regiment of the Imperial Guard and three regiments of the Polish Division. Paradoxically, supporting Napoleon in hope of the reconstitution of their own state, Poles participated in the pacification of the other oppressed country. Kossak, a bard of the Napoleonic wars, portrayed lancers of the Legion of the Vistula while patrolling the mountains in Castile. One can see them asking a local highlander for the way or about the enemy’s action. The neutral character of the composition does not reveal the actual role of the Polish troops in Napoleon’s Spanish campaign. Wacława Milewska
exposition: The Gallery of 19th Century Polish Art in Sukiennice,
The Cloth Hall, 1, Main Market Square
key: Realism, polish impressionism, beginnings of symbolism >>>
dimensions: 21,2 × 26,5 cm
description: Kossak’s painting illustrates an episode from the war between France and Spain (1808–1814). Napoleon began the campaign in the Iberian Peninsula by invading Portugal in 1807 and a year later turned on its ally, Spain. In May 1808, after a rising of the people in Madrid had been bloodily put down, citizens of all the Spanish provinces rose up in rebellion against the French. It was the first war for independence in the modern era fought to such a large extent by partisans, guerrilleros. Several units of the army of the Duchy of Warsaw took part in Napoleon’s invasion of Spain: infantry regiments and lancers of the Legion of the Vistula, Polish 1st Light Cavalry Regiment of the Imperial Guard and three regiments of the Polish Division. Paradoxically, supporting Napoleon in hope of the reconstitution of their own state, Poles participated in the pacification of the other oppressed country. Kossak, a bard of the Napoleonic wars, portrayed lancers of the Legion of the Vistula while patrolling the mountains in Castile. One can see them asking a local highlander for the way or about the enemy’s action. The neutral character of the composition does not reveal the actual role of the Polish troops in Napoleon’s Spanish campaign. Wacława Milewska
exposition: The Gallery of 19th Century Polish Art in Sukiennice,
The Cloth Hall, 1, Main Market Square
key: Realism, polish impressionism, beginnings of symbolism >>>