ADOLF VON MENZEL
132 Figure Studies
Carpenter's pencil; H: 37.9 cm (i4I5/i6 in.); W: 26.3 cm
(io^5 /i6in.)
84.GB.6
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom right, signed
AD. Menzel. in carpenter's pencil.
PROVENANCE: Private collection, Switzerland; art mar-
ket, Munich.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.IN 1869 MENZEL WAS COMMISSIONED TO DESIGN A
commemorative print on the occasion of the fiftieth an-
niversary of the Heckmann metal works. This commis-
sion led to an increasing interest on his part in industrial
subject matter, and in 1872 he spent several weeks in the
vast smelting works in Konigshutte, Upper Silesia,
making many drawings recording his impressions of the
iron production process. Menzel employed these studies
in the execution of his most important painting, The Iron
Rolling Mill, a major example of nineteenth-century in-
dustrial depiction. He completed the painting early in
1875 and sold it immediately to the banker Adolph von
Liebermann, who resold it in the same year to the Natio-
nalgalerie in Berlin, where it remains.
This is one of many surviving studies for the Iron
Rolling Mill, most of which are also in the Nationalgal-
erie.^1 This drawing is clearly related to the figures in the
center of the composition who are moving a glowing
piece of iron toward the rollers, while the rest of their co-
workers are shown eating and washing, indicating a
change of shift. Most likely, this sheet served as a study
for the man with his back to the viewer at the center of
the painting, though he is shown there in a somewhat
more strained pose. This association is supported by the
fact that Menzel made studies of this man on at least two
other sheets together with studies for the man shown in
profile with his hands above his head; these figures are
shown in the same relative positions as in the painting
(Berlin, Nationalgalerie, inv. 1065; Hamburger Kun-
sthalle, inv. 1953/57).^2 The careful modeling and detail-
ing of the figure in the Museum's drawing suggest that
it was made not as a study from life but as one of the more
considered and finished drawings for the painting,
achieved after some reflection.1. K. Kaiser, Adolph Menzels Eisenwalzwerk: Veroffentlichung
der Deutschen Akademie der Kunste (Berlin, 1953), esp. figs. 18-
55-- Ibid., no. 18; G. Hopp and E. Schaar, Menzel—Der Beo-
bachter, exh. cat., Hamburger Kunsthalle, 1982, no. 105.
296 GERMAN SCHOOL • MENZEL