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 :. | Eisenwalzwerk | The Artist-s Sisters | Building Site with Meadow | Afternoon in the Tuileries Garden (nn02) | Self-Portrait with Worker near the Steam-hammer |
Related Artists:
Erasmus Ritter von Engert
Austrian, 1796-1871
Frans Floris de Vriendt
c.1517-70, Flemish painter
Prospero Fontana
(1512 - 1597) was an Italian painter of the late Renaissance. Fontana was born in Bologna, and became a pupil of Innocenzo da Imola. He afterwards worked for Perin del Vaga in the Palazzo Doria in Genoa. Towards 1550, it is reported that Michelangelo introduced him to Pope Julius III as a portrait-painter; and he was pensioned at the pontifical court. He later joined Vasari's studio in Florence, and worked in frescoes at the Palazzo Vecchio (1563-65). He is an early representative of the Bolognese school of painting. Sabbatini, Sammachini and Passerotti were three of his principal pupils or colleagues. His daughter, Lavinia Fontana, was also a prominent painter of mostly conventional religious canvases. Returning to Bologna, after doing some work in Fontainebleau (France) and in Genoa, he opened a school of art, in which he became briefly the preceptor of Lodovico and Agostino Carracci. He has left a large quantity of work in Bologna. His altarpiece of the Adoration of the Magi, in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, being considered his masterpiece. It is not unlike the style of Paul Veronese. He died in Rome in 1597.