Экстаз

Podkowiński finished this in 1893 and it caused an uproar when it went on show in Warsaw the next spring, a nude red-haired woman thrown back against the neck of a huge black horse charging out of the dark. Crowds came, critics fought over what it meant, and it is often called the first real Symbolist painting in Polish art. Then on 23 April 1894, weeks after the opening, the painter walked into the gallery and slashed his own canvas with a knife. He never clearly explained why, and he died the following year, still in his 20s. The tears were later repaired, and since 1904 the horse and its rider have hung in the National Museum in Kraków.