Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz (1852- 1916), The baying racehorse

oil on canvas, Dimensions with frame: 86 x 72 cm, Dimensions of canvas: 71 x 58 cm., signed l.d.Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz 1899

Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz studied at the School of Fine Arts in Cracow (with Władysław Łuszczkiewicz) from 1868 to 1873, and then at the Fine Arts Academies of Vienna and Munich (with O. Seitz and A. Wagner) and in the studio of Jozef Brandt. From his numerous travels he brought a fondness for oriental themes. He worked as a court painter, making portraits on commission. He is the author of a great many paintings, which include Portrait of Władysław Eljasz, Portrait of Helena Modrzejewska (1880), Konstanty Branicki on a hunt, Horses in the pasture (1874), Portrait of Andrzej Potocki on horseback. He also painted Tatra themes, including the painting Excursion in the Tatra Mountains, which is probably identical to the painting Chałubiński's Camp. In 1914 he joined Jozef Pilsudski's Polish Legions. He was buried in the Rakowicki Cemetery in Cracow.