Hussar patrol on the Pruth (art postcard) 1915

Image description see below

JQAW# G_1915_030
Oil on canvas? ?? x ?? cm
Signature: John Quincy Ɑdams 15
Art postcard reproduction, original lost
Image source: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (HGM) Vienna No. 6199/2008

Two cavalry soldiers (one sitting on, the other standing beside his horse) on a reconnaissance mission on the bank of a river. The soldier sitting at the horse wears a field-gray uniform and cap, the rifle shouldered at the back. The standing soldier wears a brown coat and a field-gray cap, the rifle also shouldered at the back. He observes the other river bank by means of a binocular. Wide green landscape, in the background green hills. The river bank is lined by a wide white sandbank. The sky is cloudy gray.

The picture, which was called Hussar Patrol on the Pruth at the Künstlerhaus exhibition, is lost in the original and has been preserved only as an art postcard reproduction (called Cavalry Patrol there). The river Pruth is located in the border area between Romania and the Ukraine. Therefore, the picture was taken on the Eastern Front in 1915. A painting that, in contrast to the reality of war, conveys an almost contemplative mood, representing a combination of military genre and landscape painting.It was sold at the 1915 Künstlerhaus exhibition to a person named Kestranek (600 Kr) and handed over on 3.11.1915. Since then lost and documented only as an art card reproduction, which illustrates the propagandistic purpose of the picture.

Cross-references

Exhibited

1915 Künstlerhaus Vienna (EL 60 1915/16 #1249)

Literature

APH, catalog raisonné JQA 1995, p. 127, cat.#95, fig.#66.

Provenance

1915 Private collection Kestranek (listed in KH EL No. 1243 with value 600 Kr and delivery as per 3.11.1915). Since then lost.