Adolf Schreyer

Peikin Galleries, New York
Mr. and Mrs. William Henry Haussner, Baltimore (acquired from the above in 1950)
Sale: The Haussner's Resturant Collection: 19th Century European and American Paintings, Sotheby's, New York, November 9, 1999, lot 26, illustrated
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Schreyer first traveled to Wallachia (now part of Romania) in 1848-9.  From 1855-57 he was with the Prince's regiment to the eastern reaches of the Danube as an official war artist covering the Crimean War.  These visits left a lasting impression on the young artist; with their raw, untamed landscape and sturdy people, Wallachian subjects appeared in his work throughout the rest of his career.  In particular, the artist was intrigued by the teams of horses running across the wastelands; he depicted them in numerous large scaled compositions such as the present work.  Horses were a central component of Wallachian culture as breeding was an important component of local economy.  With stables dotting the landscape, Wallachian horse-breeding was a streamlined, efficient practice, dedicated to creating animals as powerful as they were beautiful. Prized sires were exported throughout Europe, while less noble steeds supported agriculture and served as transportation.  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" (Anatole de Demidoff, Travels in Southern Russia and the Crimea; through Hungary, Wallachia, & Moldavia, during the Year 1837, London, 1853, p. 125).  Such horses are those depicted in Schreyer's Fleeing Wallachian Horses.  They reveal both the muscular majesty and primal nature of the equine animal.  The emotion of the scene is palpable, as the viewer is directly faced with terrified horses fleeing from a burning stable, crashing against a fence.  The horses' wide eyes, tensed sinews, and frantic leaps are painted in a pure expression of emotion, recalling the evocative, excited spirit of the French Romantic masters like Géricault, Delacroix, and Vernet.  Yet the unbridled force of the scene is, as contemporary art critic J. Beavington Atkinson explains, unique to Schreyer's "mastery over the horse… The horse, as depicted by him… [is] a wild creature flying full tear across wild wastes" (as quoted in Adolf Schreyer, exhibition catalogue, Paine Art Center, 1972, pp. 15-16).