Horses in the oeuvre of the artist N. S. Samokish

In this article the depiction of horses in the works of battle painter N. S. Samokish is explored. The master's paintings and drawings dedicated to portraits of individual representatives of horse breeds, as well as generalized images of this animal are of great interest. Many famous contemporary horse breeders valued Samokish's talent for animal painting and invited him to their estates for studying and picturing horses. It is shown that horses are present in many illustrative works of the artist. Samokish created many drawings for the book “Horses (horse breeds)” in which he demonstrated his knowledge of the horse anatomy and understanding horse habits, as well as artistic skills of conveying different images of this animal. His love for horses and being interested in specificity of the battle-piece genre allowed him to become an innovator in the presentation of cavalry horses' movement. Samokish's contribution to the educational process, as a teacher who attached great importance to horse depiction training, is also noted.