Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz

Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz painted horses, riders and battle scenes with lively energy, along with portraits and colourful scenes from the Balkans and the Orient. His horses are the heart of his work: galloping, rearing or standing in a market, painted with confident realism.

Born in Wieliczka, near Kraków, he studied at the Kraków School of Fine Arts and then in Vienna and Munich, where he worked in the studio of the Polish battle painter Józef Brandt. He travelled widely, painting in Constantinople, Sofia, Bucharest, Paris and London, and received commissions from the Habsburg court, including equestrian portraits. He joined the Polish Legions in 1914 and died in Kraków in 1916.

The National Museum in Kraków holds his work. In pictures like Balkan Rider or Horse Market on the Prairie, look at the movement of the animals and the bright costumes.