Horses in War and Piece Horses in War and Piece | Page 60

Carl Friedrich Schulz (1796 – 1866)
Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich
Life-Guard Lancer Regiment on Manoeuvre
1848
oil on canvas
75 x 95 cm
signed and dated lower right:
Carl Schulz / 1848
Completed in 1848, the painting depicts Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich
Life-Guard Lancer Regiment in Poland during the campaign of 1831.
Tsar Nicholas I was a great collector of military paintings, and Carl Friedrich
Schulz was among his favourite artists in the genre. Grand duke Mikhail
Pavlovich life-guard lancer regiment on manoeuvre is one of a group of
paintings portraying the Russian army commissioned by Nicholas I, and is
believed to have come down to us from the Tsar’s private collection. Considering
himself a connoisseur, the Tsar took a close interest in the works of art that he
commissioned, choosing the artists himself and tasking them with a specific
subject. He was particularly meticulous over the painter’s attention to details of
uniform, equipment and insignia. As a consequence of his enthusiasm, he soon
accumulated an exceptional collection of military paintings.
The German painter Carl Friedrich
Schulz was educated at the academies of
Dusseldorf and Berlin but took much of
the inspiration for his later work from
his time as a soldier in the Napoleonic
Wars, in which he volunteered to serve
in 1815. Having travelled extensively
around Europe, Schulz settled in
Berlin in 1830, where he was appointed
professor of the Academy of Arts in 1841
before moving to Russia in 1847.
His exquisite grasp of anatomy and
form, as well as his own experiences in
the army, were easily transferred to the
military scenes that preoccupied his
later years, and of which this is a prime
example. He was commissioned to paint
these by the Prussian King Friedrich
Wilhelm III as well as Tsar Nicholas I.
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