Polowanie stepowe na wilka

Polowanie stepowe na wilka (Steppe Hunt for Wolf), painted in 1883, draws on the distinctive wolf-hunting tradition of the Ukrainian and Podolian steppe that was central to the equestrian and literary mythology of the Polish eastern borderlands. Wolf hunting on horseback required the fastest horses and the most fearless riders, and the kill moment — when horses and hounds closed on the wolf — was the subject of celebrated literary descriptions as well as visual images. Kossak, who painted the Ukrainian steppe and its horse culture throughout his career in the spirit of the kresy (borderland) tradition, returned to wolf-hunt subjects several times. By 1883 the actual steppe hunting culture he depicted had been transformed by the absorption of the borderlands into the Russian Empire, giving these paintings the nostalgic quality of preserved memory. The subject combined all Kossak's strengths: horses at maximum speed, dangerous quarry, dramatic action, and the emotional resonance of a lost world.

The wolf hunt demanded Kossak's most extreme rendering of equine speed: horses stretched out in flat-out pursuit across open ground, the wolf visible ahead or already surrounded. The flatness of the steppe setting removes all landscape obstacles, making speed and direction the primary visual elements. The warm, golden tones of the Ukrainian steppe in autumn are appropriate to the hunt season.