Doctor Śliwiński in a carriage

Watercolour by Juliusz Kossak – purchased by the museum, originally framed in a black profiled frame and Viennese passe-partout – depicts a one-horse carriage: a black coach with a folding hood, driven from a coachman seat by a coachman, and a middle-aged man on the passenger seat. This watercolour, which was typical of Juliusz Kossak, is of documentary or even portrait nature. We see a black horse with strains on its legs, named Murzyn (Negro) in a very stylish English gaited harness, rendered with detail. The above-mentioned passenger, wearing light summer clothing, is the owner of the carriage, doctor Michał Śliwiński from Kraków. He is casually settled back on the main seat with his face turned towards the viewer of the painting – probably this is how he posed for Kossak. The face of the coachman, similarly to the case of doctor Śliwiński, is also painted in a portrait style. In the distant background, Juliusz Kossak depicted the ruins of the castle in Tęczyn. This watercolour with surprising title Cabriolet as horse, was shown at Juliusz Kossak’s posthumous exhibition held in 1899 in Kraków by the Society of Friends of Fine Arts. Aldona Cholewianka-Kruszyńska