Best known for painting horse cavalry in battles, 4th generation painter Wojciech Kossak was also court painter of Emperor Wilhelm II Hohenzollern, and an avid car enthusiast that was commissioned by Fiat to paint an advertisement

The first two Fiat cars hit the Polish lands in 1906 thanks to the Herman Meyer company in Warsaw. Car import, which in 1913 increased to 114 units, was interrupted by the First World War. Herman Meyer resumed operations in 1919. A year later, a branch was created, to which Fiat contributed 51% of capital: in this way, on February 2, 1920, the Polish Fiat company was established.

The poster was commissioned by the Polski Fiat SA company, manufacturing and selling Italian car brand Fiat, operating in Warsaw in the years 1920–1939. The vehicle, presented in a realistic way, is a Fiat 508 – the most popular passenger car on the Polish roads in the 1930s, having had its premiere in 1932 in Milan.

For the consumer in the 1930s, the message was that even a sworn horse admirer like Wojciech Kossak accepts and respects mechanical horse power.

Another title of the work is "Highlander wedding": this version is more subtle, because it does not expose the contrast between tradition and modernity to the viewer to conclude that times change and progress is inevitable - even among such a traditional community as highlanders.

In the car, the painter placed his two daughters, Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska and Magdalena Samozwaniec.

For the fee he received from the order, Kossak rented a suite for the whole year on the sixth floor of the Bristol hotel in Warsaw, from which a beautiful panorama of the capital spread (this view became an inspiration for the artist's later works). Anecdotal rumor says, however, that the negotiated amount turned out to be lower than the artist's expectations and that for this reason the painted silhouette of the vehicle is cut off, while the horses, despite remaining in the background, are shown in full, in a very impressive pose, and of course they are clearly ahead of the car.

The original was displayed at the Warsaw headquarters of the company. Unfortunately, it was lost during the war and has not been found.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojciech_Kossak
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/polski-fiat-polish-fiat/TAF34d0G8XdNRg
https://automobilownia.pl/majstersztyki-reklamy-dwa-swiaty/

Thanks Marcin!