Artists
Adolf von Menzel
- Country:
- Germany
- Birth year:
- 1815
- Death year:
- 1905
Adolf von Menzel (1815 Wroclaw-1905 Berlin) moved with his family to Berlin in 1830, where the young man took over the lithographic workshop of his deceased father and remained there for the rest of his life. Beginning in 1833, he studied at the art academy, and entered the Jungerer Berliner Kunstverein ("Younger Berlin Art Union") the following year. In 1855, 1867 and 1868 he lived in Paris, and undertook various tours of southern Germany and Italy as well. In the 1840s Menzel concentrated chiefly on realistic landscapes, and in the following decade, on large historical paintings, at first centered thematically on life at the court of Frederick the Great (1752-1786), and after 1860 on contemporary subjects and events of more recent Prussian history Menzel also completed smaller-format genre pictures which point toward impressionism. Throughout his life he remained interested in printmaking techniques, producing lithographs, woodcuts as well as paintings. Other works by the artist include the Balcony Room, 1845; Le Theatre du Gymnase, 1856; and Still Mill, 1875; all located in the Natinalgalerie, XMPK, Berlin.