Footnotes

Provenance
With Peikin Galleries, New York.
William Henry Haussner and Frances Wilke Huassner, The Haussner's Restaurant Collection, Baltimore (acquired from the above in 1950).
Their sale, Sotheby's, New York, 2 November 1999, lot 26.
Private collection, Midwest, USA (acquired from the above sale).
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, New York, 1 February 2019, lot 470.
Property of a gentleman (acquired from the above sale).

Literature
Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch, 'Adolphe Schreyer', The Magazine of Art, Washington, D.C., 1895, vol. 18, p. 137, illustrated.

'Mastery over the horse ... the horse, as depicted by him... [is] a wild creature flying full tear across wild wastes'¹. These were the words of contemporary art critic J. Beavington Atkinson to describe Schreyer's skill in equine painting which is manifest at its apogee in the present lot. Schreyer succeeds in portraying not only the raw energy and force of the horses but in painting on this large scale the sense of urgency, danger and fear in the scene are heightened and immediate. The panic is palpable as the horses clamber over one another, breaking the fence, nostrils flared, eyes wide and sinews strained. The sense of desperation is infectious and one cannot help but become invested in the fate of the horses as it becomes clear that they may not all escape the dark, smoke filled skies which are set in stark contrast to the resplendent white of the central horse.

Schreyer travelled to Wallachia (a historical and geographical region of modern-day Romania) more than once, firstly in 1848-49 and also in 1855-57 when he was an official war artist covering the Crimean War. Visiting the region had a great influence on the young artist and its rugged landscape and famous horses would feature in numerous other large scale compositions.

Horses have played an important role in Wallachian culture throughout the history of the area and breeding was an important component of local economy. A contemporary visitor to the region noted that Wallachian horses 'are remarkably spirited, full of energy, and fly like the wind. The mode of harnessing them is extremely simple — two slender ropes serve as traces, and are united across the chest by a leather strap; another rope of smaller size is twisted round the head, in the fashion of a halter; no bit is used, and the feet are unshod, so that the animal is thus entirely at liberty'<sup>2

1</sup> Adolf Schreyer, ex. cat., Paine Art Center, 1972, pp. 15-16.
² Anatole de Demidoff, Travels in Southern Russia and the Crimea; through Hungary, Wallachia, & Moldavia, during the Year 1837, London, 1853, p. 125.

The authenticity of this lot was confirmed by Dr. Christoph Andreas prior to the Sotheby's auction of 1 February 2019.