1815-1905 German Adolph von Menzel Gallery His father was the headmaster of a school for girls, and intended to educate his son as a professor; but he would not thwart his taste for art. Left an orphan in 1832, Menzel had to maintain his family. In 1833 Sachse of Berlin published his first work, 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 Denkw??rdigkeiten 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 the king Frederick William IV, he illustrated the works of Frederick the Great, Illustrationen zu den Werken Friedricks des Grossen (1843-1849). By 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. Pencil drawing by Menzel, 1891.Meanwhile Menzel had set himself to study unaided the art of painting, and he soon produced a great number and variety of pictures, always showing 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 the most important of these works are The Forge (1875) and The Market-place at Verona. 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. In Germany he received many honors, and was the first painter to be given the Order of the Black Eagle in 1898 which included a title of nobility, becoming von Menzel.  Related Paintings of Adolph von Menzel :. | Storm on Tempelhof Mountain | Theatre du Gymnase | German:Bauplatz | Kronung Konig Wilhelms I | Die Berlin-Potsdamer Bahn |
Related Artists:
Emile Pinchart
French, 1842 to 1924
John Pynas
1583-1631 Dutch John Pynas Gallery
gabriele munter
Gabriele Munter (1877 - 1962) was a German expressionist painter who was at the forefront of the Munich avant-garde in the early 20th century.Gabriele Meenter was born in Berlin and showed an interest in art from a young age. She received private tuition in drawing and attended the local Women Artists School, as she was unable to enroll in the German art academies because she was a woman. Meenter left Berlin to attend the progressive Phalanx School in Munich. There she studied sculpture, printmaking and painting and in 1902 began a very intimate and personal relationship with the School director Wassily Kandinsky; they were later engaged to be married. In 1911 they founded the avant-garde expressionist group known as Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) group.During World War I the couple left Germany to take refuge in Switzerland, but since Kandinsky was Russian he was forced to return to Moscow in 1914. He divorced and remarried while in Russia and never saw Meenter again. She returned to Germany following the war but was relatively inactive in the arts again until the 1920s. During World War II she hid Kandinsky works and those of other members of the Blue Rider from the Nazis. She died in 1962 in Murnau am Staffelsee.