Aleksander Orlowski - Bashkir lancer with his horse

Salve,
one of my most favorite horse painters imci pan aleksander Orlowski, who left partitioned Polish Kingdom to seek a better day in Sankt Petersburg, Russian Empire, and found the imperial patrons quite ready for his talent.

So to start of the cold month of February -
a nice, large and thus very detailed study of a Bashkir horseman and his moun;
our bellicose Bashkirs being part of the Russian Imperial forces participated in the Napoleonic wars, sort of irregular cavalry along with the Kalmucks, Tatars, Kirghiz and other nomads of the Russia's steppes at that time; at first they were often mixed a bit into the Don Cossacks host, and they since 1812 they had their own regiments. - in English dr Stephen Summerfield goes into more detail in his book on the Cossacks and other irregular cavalry of the Russian army of the Napoleonic period.

 Note the typical light steppe saddle with a pillow - jarczak [Polish] yarchak - and his bridle arrangement with a third rein for leading.
 The Ufa Museum has a large collection of maestro Aleksander's works showing Bashkirs.
We should remember that maestro Orłowski was a veteran of the failed Kosciuszko insurrection  and was very keen of drawing and painting his memories of that hot and ultimately failed struggle.

Nota bene a contemporary military illustrator Azat Kuzhin is a Bashkir from Bashkortostan - you can see his work here.
Azat  has done some illustrations for the Karwansaray Publishers - Ancient Warfare and Medieval Warfare magazines et al. 
Also for others -  like these.
I also have a privilege of knowing Azat and calling him a friend and colleague.
                          Vivat Polish-American-Bashkir  friendship -  :)

enjoy