"Sire, I send Your Royal Highness a Cossack, whom Rienbrand has mounted on a horse, this horse has eaten 420 German guilders during his stay with me. Your Majesty's Just Grace leads me to expect that the orange trees in this pennant will blossom'. This is what Michał Kazimierz Ogiński, Grand Hetman of Lithuania, wrote in 1791 in a humorous letter to King Stanisław August Poniatowski. This is the first mention of Rembrandt's painting, known today as The Polish Rider, an ornament of New York's The Frick Collection. Before the work found its way to an American collector, it had been in Polish hands for 119 years.

History of the painting "Polish Rider "
Let's take a look at the well-documented history of the canvas, contrasting its secret life before its acquisition by the Polish king and theories about its protagonist, the horseman. Nothing is obvious in this story, while question marks only add to the work's aura of mystery, provoking artists of brush and pen to further interpretations and references.

Nothing is known about the fate of the painting before its purchase by Lithuanian Grand Hetman Michał Kazimierz Ogiński. Nor do we know whether the hetman, who spent a year in The Hague, bought it for himself or for King Stanisław August. Finally, we do not know why it was made, who it depicts, whether it is a portrait of a specific person or an allegorical scene. The most eminent scholars were not unanimous as to the subject of the representation. Some saw the young man as a foxhunter or a biblical figure, others as a historical figure. To this day, the mysterious rider has not even revealed the shroud of mystery.

"Polish Rider" - description of the painting
Rembrandt painted it in the 1750s, when he was creating his most famous works in his Amsterdam studio. It was as likely to have been commissioned as simply as a motif that fascinated the painter with the exoticism and somewhat oriental traits characteristic of many of his works. The artist may have been familiar with the legendary foxhunters, as well as inspired by the popular prints in which they were depicted.

The painting is unique, one of only two known Rembrandt depictions of a model on horseback. It escapes the 'genre', however, as it is not life-size, as horse portraits and representational works were painted at the time, reserved for rulers and the mighty. It measures 116.8 x 134.9 cm and is somewhat startling in its small size at first contact, which does not detract from the beauty of the canvas.

From the foreground, a young man with subtle facial features looks out at the viewer and is not at all associated with the famously ruthless, battle-hardened mercenaries of the formation created by Colonel Aleksander Lisowski.

The rider crosses the nameless land on an emaciated grey horse. The gloomy landscape in the background is dominated by the dark mass of a rocky mountain with buildings visible.

In the clothing and armour of the figure and horse we find Polish elements. The rider's white żupan, red trousers, on his head a cap-cuff, trimmed with fur, yellow leather boots. His weaponry includes two sabres, a bow, quiver and arrows of the Eastern type, which were made by Lviv craftsmen, popular in the lands of the Republic. With his left hand he holds the reins, while in his right, supporting his side, he wields an axe - a war hammer. All of these, according to source accounts, were used by the light cavalry of the Polish-Lithuanian monarchy. Also typically Polish is the grey steed's saddle, on leopard skin, and the collar (or bridle) with a bouffant - an ornamental horse's tail attached under the animal's neck.

The moment captured by Rembrandt is imbued with a melancholic mood, deepened by the colours of dusk, the last bits of warm light bringing rider and mount out of the darkness. One last glance behind him, illuminating the handsome face of the young soldier. Behind whom or what he is looking - we can only guess.

"Polish Rider" - the fate of the painting
. The last monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Stanisław August Poniatowski, went down in Polish culture as an outstanding patron of culture and science, an enthusiast and owner not only of a magnificent art collection, but also of scientific and natural history collections. He built up this collection during the more than thirty years of his reign (1764-1795).

Hetman Oginsky, who furnished the newly acquired estate, was familiar with the royal orange trees, as well as his love of Dutch paintings and equestrian depictions. Therefore, in 1791, the first known owner of Rembrandt's work became the last king of Poland. The royal inventory lists the painting as 'Cossaque à cheval' ('Cossack on horseback'). The most important and valuable part of the art collection for the king was placed in his beloved Łazienki Park.

"The lucky possessor" of the painting Stanislaus Poniatowski was less than four years old, because after the monarch's abdication (1795) it was to follow the king to Grodno, together with other canvases. The Palace on the Isle, where it was exhibited, did not leave, however. After the death of Stanisław August (1798), it and the entire collection became the property of the king's nephew, Prince Józef Poniatowski, and then of his sister, Maria Teresa Tyszkiewicz. It was then hung in the Picture Gallery on the ground floor of the palace. There, in 1811, the painting was seen by Waleria née Stroynowska Tarnowska, who referred to it as the 'fox's man'. She associated it with her ancestor, Stanisław Stroynowski, who in the 17th century served under Aleksander Józef Lisowski in a regiment of mercenaries known as the Lisowczyks. Her diary is the first known source for the functioning of the new identification of the painting's subject. A Cossack becomes a 'Lisowczyk' and this title, now unofficially, is sometimes used in Poland to this day.

After the death of Prince Joseph, his sister sells off the royal collection. In 1814. 'Lisowczyk' is bought by Duke Franciszek Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki, who after a few months sells the canvas at a substantial profit to the Bishop of Vilnius, Hieronim Stroynowski, for the dizzying sum of 500 ducats. After the bishop's death, the painting was inherited by his brother, Walerian Stroynowski, and taken to his residence in Horochów in Volhynia. After him, the work was taken over by his daughter, Valeria - the same one who first wrote about the foxglove.

At the Tarnowskis' palace in Dzików, the 'Lisowczyk' finally found a peaceful haven. He left the palace only three times - twice for conservation and once for an exhibition. For the next 75 years it was somewhat forgotten.

"Polish Rider" - an inspiration for painters
More than a century after it was first exhibited in the Royal Baths Park, the painting "Polish Rider" was presented to the general public. The director of the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague, Abraham Bredius, succeeded in convincing the then owner, Zdzisław Tarnowski, to lend the painting for an exhibition devoted to Rembrandt at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The director asked Tarnowski to agree to show 'this gem to the public at least once, and only for two months'. In doing so, he assured him that 'only godly hands would handle the painting'. As a result, in 1898 in Amsterdam, among the 123 works by Rembrandt on display, the painting was listed as 'Portrait of a Polish Rider in the Uniform of the Lysowski Regiment against a Landscape'.

In this way, the painting went from being an almost unknown Cossack-Lysowski to being the success of the exhibition and Bredius's discovery, the 'Polish Rider'. The work gained enormous publicity and considerable value. When in 1910. Zdzisław Tarnowski put it up for sale, the transaction was finalised in a flash. After a few days, the distinguished American collector Henry Clay Frick became the new owner. "The Polish Rider" found its way to New York, in a specially designed building of the new owner's magnificent gallery. After 119 years, the Cossack-Lisowczyk-Rider left Polish soil.

In the summer of 2022, we were able to admire the painting for the first time since its departure in its original location, Warsaw's Lazienki Park, in the exhibition 'Royal Rembrandt. The Polish Rider from the collection of The Frick Collection in New York', followed by the Wawel Castle in Krakow.

Rembrandt's Horseman remained present in Polish culture, becoming an important model for painters. In the royal times, he was painted by Jan Piotr Norblin, and in the 19th century by Juliusz Kossak. The horseman was also an inspiration for many battle painters of his time. He was a symbol associated with freedom, a reminder of the former glory of the brave cavalry and the heroic past of the defunct Republic of Poland. It still resonates today, not least in Polish art and literature.

What remains of the 'Polish Rider' in Dzików is a faithful copy requested by Zdzisław Tarnowski and the original frame, which Frick gave up. The copy by Ambrose McEvoy, made in London, was framed in a frame from the time when the painting belonged to King Stanislaw August. In 1927, both were burnt down in the great fire at the castle. Rembrandt's work went to New York in a new frame and is still exhibited in it today. It has been on view at The Frick Collection since December 1935, when the museum opened to the public.