The Master of the Equine Spirit In the grand tapestry of nineteenth-century European art, few names evoke the grace and raw vitality of the animal kingdom as poignantly as Carl Constantin Heinrich Steffeck. Born on April 4, 1818, into a cultured German milieu, Steffe Lack was destined for a life steeped in aesthetic refinement. The son of a gentleman of independent means with a profound passion for the arts, his early years were marked by an unusual proximity to greatness; even while still a student at the Gymnasium, he found himself attending classes at the prestigious Prussian Academy of A…