Editing Adolph Menzel (section)

==Biography==
[[File:Adolph Menzel - Eisenwalzwerk - Google Art Project.jpg|thumbnail|300px|''[[The Iron Rolling Mill (Modern Cyclopes)]]'', 1872–1875]]

===Career===
Menzel was born to German parents in Breslau, [[Silesia|Prussian Silesia]] (now [[Wrocław]], [[Poland]]), on 8 December 1815.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title= Adolf von Menzel|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=18 April 2017|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, inc.|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Adolf-von-Menzel|access-date=7 December 2017}}</ref> His father was a lithographer and intended to educate his son as a professor, but did not thwart his taste for art.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=146}} 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.<ref name="f5"/>  {{Interlanguage link|Louis Friedrich Sachse|de}} 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 [[lithograph]]s 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.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=146}}
[[File:Menzels Schwester Emilie im Schlaf (ca. 1848) Adolf Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel (Hamburger Kunsthalle).jpg|left|thumb|''Emilie Menzel Asleep'', {{Circa|1848}}. Oil on paper, 46.8 × 60 cm. [[Hamburger Kunsthalle]]]]
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 Theodor Kugler|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). The artist had a deep sympathy for the Prussian king. In one of his letters to Johann Jakob Weber, he said that it was his intention to represent the monarch as a man who was both hated and admired—simply as he was, in other words, as a man of the people.<ref>Cited in Hubertus Kohle, ''Adolph Menzels Friedrich-Bilder: Theorie und Praxis der Geschichtsmalerei im Berlin der 1850er Jahre'' (Munich and Berlin: [[Deutscher Kunstverlag]], 2001), p. 49.</ref> 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.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|pp=146–7}}

Menzel's fame came from his illustrations of the 18th-century Prussian monarch, Frederick the Great. As well as dedication to adding historical accuracy and attention to detail. Menzel also made sure to do research on the items he was painting.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/adolph-menzel|title=Adolph Menzel (1815–1905) {{!}} National Gallery, London|website=www.nationalgallery.org.uk|access-date=18 December 2019}}</ref> From 1840 and onward Menzel became admirable for his small paintings and drawings. In which he depicted his unconventional ideas.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Adolf-von-Menzel|title=Adolf von Menzel {{!}} German painter|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=18 December 2019}}</ref>
[[Image:Adolph Menzel - Das Balkonzimmer - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[The Balcony Room]]'', 1845]]
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)<ref>See Manuela Lintl "Die Rezeption von Menzels Eisenwalzwerk", unpublished master's thesis, Department History of Art, [[Technische Universität Berlin]], Germany 1996.</ref> and ''The Market-place at [[Verona]]''. When invited to paint ''The Coronation of [[Wilhelm I of Germany|William I]] at Koenigsberg'', he produced an exact representation of the ceremony without regard to the traditions of official painting.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=147}}

During Menzel's life, his paintings were appreciated by [[Otto von Bismarck]] and William I, and after his death they were appropriated for use as electoral posters by [[Adolf Hitler]].<ref name="e559-563">Eisler, 559–565</ref>

If these historical illustrations anticipated the qualities of early [[Impressionism]],<ref name="e561">Eisler, 561</ref> 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."<ref name="e564">Eisler, 564</ref> Such [[genre works|genre paintings]] evidence associations with [[French art of the 19th century|French]] and [[English art]]. Though he was primarily an excellent draughtsman, art historian [[Julius Meier-Graefe]] considered him to be a "proto-impressionist" painter, whose graphic work hindered his painterly potentials.<ref>Werner Busch, ''Adolph Menzel: Leben und Werk'' (Munich: Beck, 2004), p. 6-8.</ref> 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."<ref>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</ref>