Adolph Von Menzel

Adolph Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel

Paintings

In a Railway Carriage after a Nights Journey

Afternoon in the Tuileries Gardens

Soiree

Alfred the Great

Old Synagogue in Prague

Studio wall

Laying out the March Dead

Laying out the March Dead , detail

Storage room during the museum renovation

Balcony Room

Ball souper

Ball souper , detail

Farmers theater in Tirol

Building Site with Willows

Beati possidentes

Berlin, Am Kreuzberg

Berlin, Askanischer place after a torchlight

Berlin, Friedrichsgracht by moonlight

Berlin, Friedrichstadt, Hinterhäuser in the Knight Street ( " view at Hinterhäuser " )

Berlin- Potsdam Railway

Berlin , Southern Friedrichstadt, backyard Zimmerstraße

Berlin back houses in the snow

Blücher and Wellington at Belle Alliance , detail

Bonsoir , Messieurs ! ( Frederick the Great in Lissa )

Chodowiecke on the Jannowitzbruecke

Chodowiecke on the Jannowitzbruecke , detail

Choir of the old monastery church in Berlin

Iron Rolling Mill ( Modern Cyclopes )

Emilie Menzel standing at the piano

Flute Concert of Frederick the Great in Sanssouci

Frederick the Great on trips

Friedrichsgracht by moonlight

Corpus Christi Procession in Hofgastein

Corpus Christi Procession in Hofgastein , detail

Thunderstorm at Tempelhof Mountain

Dry place

Hanau , castle portal with Royal reception

Hussars hold a Polish family

In the beer garden

In the White Hall

Pulpit sermon in the parish church in Innsbruck

Kitchen in Hofgastein

Art viewer

Maskensouper

Menzel's sister Emilie in sleep

Afternoon in the Tuileries Gardens

Paris weekday

Peter and Paul Church in Striegau

Portrait of Caroline Arnold

Portrait of Paul Heyse

Portrait of Menzel's brother Richard

Travel plans

Minister of State Freiherr von Schleinitz

Théâtre du Gymnase

Stairwell at night lighting

Living room with the sister of the artist

Two primary voters in conversation

Sleeping man

At the Beer Garden

Portrait of Karoline Arnold

Drawings

Old Woman

Old houses in Interlaken

Old man from Marburg

Aged with mustache

Apollo temple in Neuruppin

Workers , holding a a bucket up

Studio in Kassel

Studio in Kassel , Removal of a carton

Baden -Baden , castle with a bell tower

Baroque altar

sketch sheet

Farmhouse near Kassel

Farmhouse in Berchtesgaden

Farm and garden

Trees in wooden tubs

Tree trunk

Berlin , Prince Heinrich Palace (now Humboldt University )

Motion study of a man

Cloudy Sky

Leaf Study Canna

Hawk Forest , near Kassel

View of the Herkules

Look at the Elisabeth Church in Marburg from north

View of a castle and town (Baden- Baden)

Views of Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin

Look at Kosen an der Saale

View of Marburg from north

View through tree branches

View from the hill

View from the castle in Nuremberg at the Dürer-Haus

Fountain at the fish market in Regensburg

Bookcase in Potsdam

Choir of a baroque church

Drawing of a Sculpture

Clavichord and litter

Lady sitting at the piano

Lady with flowered hat , from above

Lady with fan

The painter Ernest Meissonier in "Henri - Quatre "

Kassler Old Town

The Peter Keller in Salzburg

Salzburg Protestants in 1732

The Fulda in Kassel

The Neuenburg above Freyburg

The Saale at Kosen with the Rudelsburg

The Battle of Mollwitzstraße , 1741

Sculptures from Parthenon

Drawing sculptures

Village on a river, near Kassel

Rural landscape ( Interlaken )

Turner workshop in Garmisch

Three old women , wrapped in towels

Three old men

Three maids of honor

Three soldiers killed

Three heads

Train from Berlin to Potsdam

Ironwork from the Welfenmuseum

Iron candlesticks and lattice

Emile Menzel , lying

Ferry with reading lady on one bank

Rocks in the Saxon Switzerland

Figure Study on Hans Karl von Winterfeldt

Woman from Marburg

Woman Maerker at the piano

Garden

Walls of a ruin

Stalls with canopy

Tomb of Count Henry I in the Elizabeth Church in Marburg

Tomb of the Landgrave Ludwig I. Elisabeth Church in Marburg

Wilhelm near Kassel

Hessian peasants on the market

A hollow willow tree on the road

Smelter blast furnace and piping

Interlaken with views of the Jungfrau

bare trees

Monastery of Melk on the Danube

Head of an old man

Heads

Heads of a lady and a gentleman

Heads of two bearded men

Spa gardens in Kissingen

Coachman

Landscape with village on mountainside , in the foreground two trees

landscape study

Lute player from the Kassel Gallery

Body of Field Marshal Keith

Girl with glass in hand

Masons on a scaffold

Military transport train on the railway

Elisabeth Church in Marburg

Moltke binoculars

Munich, Innsbruck Place

Munich at night

organ player

Paris house demolition

Horse

Horse with blanket at the manger in the stable

Horse Head with halter

horse study

Portrait of Constanze Martini as a child

Portrait of Caroline Arnold

Portrait of Pauline Martini

Portrait of the Artist's Sister

Portrait of Carl Johann Arnold

Portrait of the painter Eduard Magnus

Rider and man

Armor, study

Schafgraben with wooden bridge and houses

Sleeping infant

Sled , seen from above

self-portrait

Self-portrait detail

Self Portrait with Family

Self Portrait with his coat and waistcoat

Shakespeare

man bending down

Singing Lady on the wing

Seated Lady with Opera Glasses

Seated peasant farmers and two

sketch sheet

Sketch sheet with plants and insects

Walkers under an oak

Town in eastern Germany

Standing woman elbow

Study after Baroque putti sculptures

Study on " Frederick encounter with Emperor Joseph II "

Study on " Frederick II traveling "

Study on " Ballsouper "

Study on " Eisenwalzwerk "

study sheet

Study on the " coronation picture Wilhelm I. "

Study on " Frederick II Round Table "

study sheet

Study sheets for "Paris of the week "

Towers of the Church of St. Elizabeth in Marburg

Connecting bridge between two farmhouses

Derelict house on the road

Wall decoration in the castle Pommersfelden

Way between rows of trees

Elisabeth Church in Marburg

Two Bathers on the sea

Two dead rabbits

Study of a male, three views

Illustrations

" Memorial Book of important events of family life "

Alarm in the home

Albrecht Dürer painting in the studio

Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt

Elderly gentleman in Frederick's costume

The interior of the citadel of Antwerp

Apotheosis of Titian

From the turning point of the island Potsdam

Episode "From King Frederick time . War and peace heroes "

Berlin Argonauts

Bust of the Criminal Court Director GL Schmidt

The Berlin children's weekly paper

The invalidity Corps

The Last . Half-length portrait of a goldsmith

The Antiquary ( Self-Portrait)

The poet William Shakespeare

The Schafgraben

The dead Husar

The twelve year old Christ in the Temple

German picture-book for young and old

Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner and Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann

The five senses . Les cinq sens

The modern age

The sleeping seamstress by the window

The newspaper reader

Don Juan flees Donna Anna

A painter draws

A lady at a portrait session

Single prints to : "The army of Frederick the Great in their uniforms "

Family at the lamp

Conflagration in a city

Episode "From King Frederick time . War and peace heroes "

Episode "Memoirs of the Brandenburg- Prussian history"

Episode "The soldiers of Frederick the Great "

Episode " artist Erdenwallen "

Episode " Radir experiments "

Result " tests on stone with brush and scraper "

Franz von Sickingen death in Landstuhl

Frederick the Great

Friedrich von Gentz

Frontispiece to the issue of the "works of Frederick the Great " of 1882

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

Commemorative sheet to the invention of printing

Hamlet and Polonius

Heda Mamselken !

Prince of Pueckler and Yusuf Bey

Hüftbild Frederick II as Crown Prince

Illustration to "The Lightning Schlosser of Wittenberg "

Illustration of Adam Mickiewicz's " Poems "

Illustration to "The Lightning Schlosser of Wittenberg "

Illustration to the " works of Frederick the Great "

Illustration for " History of Frederick the Great "

Illustration to poems of Anastasius Grün

Illustration for " The Broken Jug "

Illustrations to " Luther's life "

Illustrations for "Peter Schlemihl 's wondrous story "

Learn Italian.

Bridesmaid Lorenz of Tangier mouth, smoke

Justus Moser's monument of Drake in Osnabrück

Kronos (Saturn ) and the genius of art

Kurds

Leipzig folk scenes

Portrait of the Alps Singer C. Fischer , P. and S. Laufer Schweizar

Portrait of Crime Director Hitzig

Portrait of the Polish military leader Skrzynecki

Portrait of Prince Mirza Khosrew

Portrait of the actor Ludwig Devrient

Prospectus to the " works of Frederick the Great "

Rathe , who is it ?

Shoemaker Pichbärme

Ridicule Journal

Silence participation

Study sheet from the madhouse

Cover to "The Ancestry cross ... "

Cover to "The parish to Buchensee "

Circassians

Sergeant

Our Father. oraison Dominicale

Four monks

Two angels heads

Two girls comb their hair

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Adolph von Menzel

Adolph Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel, (December 8, 1815 – February 9, 1905) was a German artist noted for drawings, etchings, and paintings. Along with Caspar David Friedrich, he is considered one of the two most prominent German artists of the 19th century,[1] and was the most successful artist of his era in Germany.[2] His popularity in his native country, owing especially to politically propagandistic works, was such that few of his major paintings left Germany, as many were quickly acquired by museums in Berlin.[3] Menzel's graphic works and drawings were more widely disseminated; these, along with informal paintings not initially intended for display, have largely accounted for his posthumous reputation.[4]

Although he traveled in order to find subjects for his art, to visit exhibitions, and to meet with other artists, Menzel spent most of his life in Berlin, and was, despite numerous friendships, by his own admission detached from others.[5] It is likely that he felt socially estranged for physical reasons alone—Menzel had a large head, and stood about four foot six inches.[5]

Career

Graphic works
Pencil drawing by Menzel, 1891.

He was born in Breslau. His father was the headmaster of a school for girls, and intended to educate his son as a professor; however, he would not thwart his taste for art. After resigning his teaching post, Menzel senior set up a lithographic workshop in 1818. In 1830 the family moved to Berlin, and in 1832 Adolph was forced to take over the lithographic business on the death of his father. In 1833, he studied briefly at the Berlin Academy of Art, where he drew from plaster casts and ancient sculptures; thereafter Menzel was self-taught.[5] Sachse of Berlin published his first work in 1833, an album of pen-and-ink drawings reproduced on stone, to illustrate Goethe's little poem, Kunstlers Erdenwallen. He executed lithographs in the same manner to illustrate Denkwürdigkeiten aus der brandenburgisch-preussischen Geschichte; The Five Senses and The Prayer, as well as diplomas for various corporations and societies.

From 1839 to 1842, he produced 400 drawings, largely introducing to Germany the technique of wood engraving, to illustrate the Geschichte Friedrichs des Grossen (History of Frederick the Great) by Franz Kugler. He subsequently brought out Friedrichs der Grossen Armee in ihrer Uniformirung (The Uniforms of the Army under Frederick the Great), Soldaten Friedrichs der Grossen (The Soldiers of Frederick the Great); and finally, by order of King Frederick William IV, he illustrated the works of Frederick the Great, Illustrationen zu den Werken Friedrichs des Grossen (1843-1849).

Through these works, Menzel established his claim to be considered one of the first, if not actually the first, of the illustrators of his day in his own line.

Paintings
Emilie Menzel Asleep, c. 1848. Oil on paper, 46.8 x 60 cm. Hamburger Kunsthalle.

In the meantime, Menzel had also begun to study, unaided, the art of painting, and he soon produced a great number and variety of pictures. His paintings consistently demonstrated keen observation and honest workmanship in subjects dealing with the life and achievements of Frederick the Great, and scenes of everyday life, such as In the Tuileries, The Ball Supper, and At Confession. Among those considered most important of these works are Iron Rolling Mill (1872-1875) and The Market-place at Verona. When invited to paint The Coronation of William I at Koenigsberg, he produced an exact representation of the ceremony without regard to the traditions of official painting.

Menzel's depictions of Frederick the Great were nearly cinematic in their reportage and attention to detail, glorifying a suppressive government in a pseudo-documentary style; in these qualities as well as for their re-creation of earlier events of nationalistic pride, the paintings are very similar in effect to the Napoleonic heroics chronicled by Ernest Meissonnier (1815-1891).[2] During Menzel's life, his paintings' political implications were appreciated by Otto von Bismarck and William I, and after his death they were appropriated for use as electoral posters by Adolf Hitler.[2]

If these historical illustrations anticipated the literal qualities of early Impressionism,[6] it is paintings such as The French Window and The Palace Garden of Prince Albert, both painted in the mid- 1840s, that now appeal as "among the most freely observed of mid-nineteenth century images."[7] Such genre paintings evidence associations with French and English art, and would have been politically unacceptable in Wilhelmine Germany; they were not exhibited in Menzel's lifetime.[7] Private drawings and watercolors made of dead and dying soldiers in 1866 on the battlefields of the Austro-Prussian War are unsparing in their realism, and have been described by art historian Marie Ursula Riemann-Reyher as "unique in German art of the time."[8]

Later Years

The paintings which were available to the public garnered recognition not only within Germany, but from the French avant-garde as well: Edgar Degas admired and copied his work, calling him "the greatest living master",[9] and Louis Edmond Duranty wrote of his art:

"In a word, the man is everywhere independent, sincere, with sure vision, a decisive note that can sometimes be a little brutal....While being perfectly healthy he has the neurosis of truthfulness....The man who has measured with a compass the buttons on a uniform from the time of Frederick, when it is a matter of depicting a modern shoe, waistcoat, or coiffure, does not make them by approximations but totally, in their absolute form and without smallness of means. He puts there everything that is called for by the character (of the object). Free, large, and rapid in his drawing, no draftsman is as definitive as he".[10]

Notwithstanding Menzel's professed estrangement from others, his renown entailed social obligations, and in the 1880s the poet Jules Laforgue described him as "no taller than a cuirassier-guard's boot, bedecked with pendants and orders, not missing a single one of these parties, moving among all these personages like a gnome and like the greatest enfant terrible for the chronicler."[11] In Germany he received many honors, and in 1898 became the first painter to be admitted to the Order of the Black Eagle; by virtue of receiving the Order, Menzel was raised to the nobility, becoming "Adolph von Menzel". He was also made a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Royal Academy in London. After his death in 1905 in Berlin, his funeral arrangements were directed by the Kaiser, who walked behind his coffin.[12]

Gallery

Notes

1. ^ Fried, 11
2. ^ a b c Eisler, 559-563
3. ^ Eisler, 559
4. ^ Eisler, 559-565
5. ^ a b c Menzel wrote in his last will and testament: "Not only have I remained unmarried, throughout my life I have also renounced all relations with the other sex....In short, there is a lack of any kind of self-made bond between me and the outside world." Fried, 5
6. ^ Eisler, 561
7. ^ a b Eisler, 564
8. ^ Asked later why he had not painted any works referring to the war, Menzel replied, in part, "The requirements of patriotism have been covered by others and, after all, is it necessary to paint the horror?! Anno 66 (post festum) I went to Bohemia!..." Keisch, 331
9. ^ Keisch, et al, front cover flap
10. ^ Fried, 130
11. ^ Fried, 9
12. ^ Fried, 10

References

* This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press.
* Eisler, Colin. Masterworks in Berlin: A City's Paintings Reunited. Bulfinch, 1996. ISBN 0-8212-1951-0
* Fried, Michael. Menzel's Realism: Art and Embodiment in Nineteenth-Century Berlin. London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-300-09219-9
* Keisch, Claude, et al. Adolph Menzel 1815-1905: Between Romanticism and Impressionism. London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-300-06954-5

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Emilie, the Sister of Menzel

Sleeping man

Study of a male, three views

Study of a male, three views

Emilie, the Sister of Menzel

Sleeping man