View source for Adolph Menzel

{{Short description|German artist (1815–1905)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox artist
| name             = Adolph Menzel
| image            = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R30367, Adolph von Menzel.jpg
| caption          = Adolph von Menzel in 1900
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1815|12|8|df=yes}}
| birth_place      = [[Wrocław|Breslau]], [[Province of Silesia|Silesia]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]]
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1905|2|9|1815|12|8|df=yes}}
| death_place      = [[Berlin]], [[German Empire]]
| education        = 
| known_for        = Painting and etching
| style            = [[Realism (arts)|Realism]]
| movement         = 
| spouse           = 
| signature        = Menzel autograph.png
}}

'''Adolph Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel''' (8 December 1815{{snd}}9 February 1905) was a German [[Realism (arts)|Realist]] artist noted for drawings, [[etching]]s, and paintings. Along with [[Caspar David Friedrich]], he is considered one of the two most prominent German painters of the 19th century,<ref name="f11">Fried, 11</ref> and was the most successful artist of his era in Germany.<ref name="e559-563">Eisler, 559–565</ref> First known as '''Adolph Menzel''', he was knighted in 1898 and changed his name to '''Adolph von Menzel'''.

His popularity in his native country, owing especially to his [[history paintings]], was such that few of his major paintings left Germany, as many were quickly acquired by museums in Berlin.<ref name="e559">Eisler, 559</ref> Menzel's graphic work (and especially his drawings) were more widely disseminated; these, along with informal paintings not initially intended for display, have largely accounted for his posthumous reputation.<ref name="e559-563">Eisler, 559–565</ref>

Although he traveled in order to find subjects for his art, to visit exhibitions, and to meet with other artists, Menzel spent most of his life in Berlin, and was, despite numerous friendships, by his own admission detached from others.<ref name="f5">Menzel wrote in his last will and testament: "Not only have I remained unmarried, throughout my life I have also renounced all relations with the other sex... In short, there is a lack of any kind of self-made bond between me and the outside world." Fried, 5</ref> It is likely that he felt socially estranged for physical reasons alone—he had a large head, and stood about four foot six inches (137&nbsp;cm).<ref name="f5"/><ref>See Karl Scheffler, ''Adolf Menzel: Der Mensch, das Werk'' (Berlin: Cassirer, 1915), who is of the opinion that his short stature affected his self-esteem and whole personal life.</ref>

==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>

==Later years==
[[File:Giovanni Boldini (Ferrara, 31 dicembre 1842 – Parigi, 11 gennaio 1931) - il pittore Adolf Menzel (1895) - Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlino.jpg|thumb|1895 portrait of Menzel by [[Giovanni Boldini]], Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin]]

The paintings which were available to the public garnered recognition not only within Germany, but from the French [[avant-garde]] as well: [[Edgar Degas]] admired and copied his work, calling him "the greatest living master",<ref>Keisch, et al, front cover flap</ref> and [[Louis Edmond Duranty]] wrote of his art:

<blockquote>In a word, the man is everywhere independent, sincere, with sure vision, a decisive note that can sometimes be a little brutal....While being perfectly healthy he has the ''neurosis'' of truthfulness....The man who has measured with a compass the buttons on a uniform from the time of Frederick, when it is a matter of depicting a modern shoe, waistcoat, or coiffure, does not make them by approximations but totally, in their absolute form and without smallness of means. He puts there everything that is called for by the character (of the object). Free, large, and rapid in his drawing, no draftsman is as ''definitive'' as he.<ref>Fried, 130</ref></blockquote>

Notwithstanding Menzel's professed estrangement from others, his renown entailed social obligations, and in the 1880s the poet [[Jules Laforgue]] described him as "no taller than a cuirassier-guard's boot, bedecked with pendants and orders, not missing a single one of these parties, moving among all these personages like a gnome and like the greatest ''enfant terrible'' for the chronicler."<ref name="f9">Fried, 9</ref> In Germany he received many honors, and in 1898 became the first painter to be admitted to the [[Order of the Black Eagle]];{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=147}} by virtue of receiving the Order, Menzel was raised to the nobility, becoming "Adolph von Menzel".  He was also made a member of the [[Académie des Beaux-Arts]] in Paris and the [[Royal Academy]] in London. After his death in 1905 in Berlin, his funeral arrangements were directed by the Kaiser, who walked behind his coffin.<ref name="f10">Fried, 10</ref>

==Exhibitions (selection)==
"''Adolph Menzel 1815–1905. Das Labyrinth der Wirklichkeit''", Nationalgalerie (National Gallery) and Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings), Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 7 Feb – 11 May 1997<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/647874.ja-wer-ist-menzel.html?sstr=Adolph%7CMenzel%7CDas%7CLabyrinth%7Cder%7CWirklichkeit|title=Ja, wer ist Menzel? Das Labyrinth der Wirklichkeit – Adolph Menzel im Alten Museum in Berlin|website=Neues Deutschland|language=de|access-date=17 December 2020}}</ref>
"''Menzel. Maler auf Papier''", Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings), Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 20 September 2019 – 19 January 2020.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.smb.museum/ausstellungen/detail/menzel-maler-auf-papier/|title=Menzel. Maler auf Papier}}</ref>

==World War II==
[[File:Berlin, Alte Nationalgalerie, Eduard Meyerheim, Portrait des jungen Adolph Menzel.JPG|thumb|Adolph Menzel in 1839]]
Several important works by Menzel were seized, sold by force or under duress during the Nazi period. Some of these have been restituted in the 21st century.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kunstrückgabebeirat beschließt fünf neue Empfehlungen|url=https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20140703_OTS0154/kunstrueckgabebeirat-beschliesst-fuenf-neue-empfehlungen|access-date=18 May 2021|website=OTS.at|language=de}}</ref>

* In 2014, the Menzel's ''Stehende Rüstungen'' (1886) ("Standing Suits of Armour" or "Armoury Fantasy"<ref>{{Cite web|title=Armoury fantasy - Art Database|url=https://www.kunstdatenbank.at/detail-view-object/165|access-date=18 May 2021|website=www.kunstdatenbank.at}}</ref>)  was restituted by the Albertina Museum in Vienna to the heirs of Adele Pächter, who was murdered at the Theresienstadt concentration camp.<ref>{{Cite web|date=9 September 2014|title=Heirs to Auction Nazi-Looted Art from Albertina|url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/heirs-to-auction-nazi-looted-art-from-albertina-96587|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191204145111/https://news.artnet.com/art-world/heirs-to-auction-nazi-looted-art-from-albertina-96587|archive-date=4 December 2019|access-date=18 May 2021|website=Artnet News|language=en-US|quote=Adele Pächter, who was Jewish, was persecuted by the Nazis and was forced to dispose of her deceased husband’s collection. Hermann Pächter had died in 1902. She was able to bring the collection to auction in 1940 via her son in law, under extreme pressure. In 1943, she was murdered at the Theresienstadt concentration camp.}}</ref> 
* In 2015, the Menzel pastel "Lady with a Red Blouse" was restituted to the heirs of Erna Felicia and [[Hans Lachmann-Mosse]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=23 June 2015: Restitution of Adolph Menzel pastel to the heirs of Berlin publisher Rudolf Mosse (1843–1920)|url=https://www.lootedart.com/RJKXB5288381|access-date=18 December 2020|website=www.lootedart.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite press release|last=Miller|first=Bartko Zankel Bunzel &|title=Portrait by Adolph Menzel Among Latest Artifacts Recovered by the Mosse Art Restitution Project and Sold at Auction|url=https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/portrait-by-adolph-menzel-among-latest-artifacts-recovered-by-the-mosse-art-restitution-project-and-sold-at-auction-300279674.html|access-date=18 May 2021|website=www.prnewswire.com|language=en}}</ref> [[Oskar Reinhart]] had purchased the pastel from the art dealer [[Fritz Nathan]] in Munich in 1934 and donated it to the Foundation in 1940.<ref>{{Cite web|title=23 June 2015: Restitution of Adolph Menzel pastel to the heirs of Berlin publisher Rudolf Mosse (1843-1920)|url=https://www.lootedart.com/RJKXB5288381|access-date=15 October 2021|website=www.lootedart.com}}</ref>
* Others have been claimed but not restituted.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Hickley|first=Catherine|date=17 March 2020|title=She Tracked Nazi-Looted Art. She Quit When No One Returned It.|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/arts/design/georg-schafer-museum-nazi-looted-art.html|access-date=18 May 2021|issn=0362-4331|quote=Two other works in the museum are being sought by the heirs of Therese Clara Kirstein, a German Jew who committed suicide in 1939 after her escape to the United States was blocked. The heirs believe the works, a drawing by Adolph Menzel and a Liebermann study, were sold under duress shortly before her death or, more likely, confiscated and sold shortly after.}}</ref> Also in 2015 the Dutch Limbach Commission refused a restitution request for the Menzel painting "A Weekday in Paris" which had belonged to the Jewish banker Georges Behrens.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Chana|first=Jas|title=Why US lawmakers want Germany to revisit its museums' walls|url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/why-us-lawmakers-want-germany-to-revisit-its-museums-walls/|access-date=18 December 2020|website=www.timesofisrael.com|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Bert|first=Peter|title=Art Law: Limbach Commission Advises against Restitution of Adolf von Menzel's "Pariser Wochentag" {{!}} Dispute Resolution Germany|date=6 March 2015 |url=http://www.disputeresolutiongermany.com/2015/03/art-law-limbach-commission-advises-against-restitution-of-adolf-von-menzels-pariser-wochentag/|access-date=18 May 2021|language=en-GB}}</ref>
*In 2017 Germany's Culture Minister [[Monika Grütters|Monika Gruetter]] returned Menzel's ''Interior of a Gothic Church''  to the heirs of Elsa Cohen who, persecuted by the Nazis because Jewish, sold it to Hitler's art dealer [[Hildebrand Gurlitt]] in 1938. It was rediscovered in the art stash of his son, [[Cornelius Gurlitt (art collector)|Cornelius Gurlitt]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Germany returns Adolph von Menzel drawing sold under Nazi persecution|url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=SBBHBB283081|url-status=live|access-date=15 October 2021|website=www.lootedart.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170313203706/http://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=SBBHBB283081 |archive-date=13 March 2017 }}</ref>

The [http://www.lostart.de/Webs/EN/Datenbank/Suche/SucheSimpel.html German Lost Art Foundation] lists numerous Menzel artworks on its website.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Lost Art Internet Database – Einfache Suche|url=http://www.lostart.de/Webs/DE/Datenbank/Suche/SucheSimpelErgebnis.html?cms_param=SUCHE_ID=29016111|access-date=18 December 2020|website=www.lostart.de}}</ref>

==Cultural references==
[[File:Menzel-tomb.JPG|thumb|219px|Menzel's tomb in Berlin]]
Menzel and an exhibition of his art plays a pivotal role in the HBO series ''[[The Gilded Age (TV series)|The Gilded Age]]'' (2023), Season 2 Episode 3.<ref>[https://www.avclub.com/the-gilded-age-review-season-2-episode-3-1850987364 The Gilded Age]</ref>

==Gallery==
{{Clear}} <!-- technical, don't remove -->
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
File:1844 Menzel Falke attackiert Taube anagoria.jpg|''[[Falcon Attacking a Pigeon]]'', 1844 
File:Adolph Menzel - Bauplatz mit Weiden - Google Art Project.jpg|''Building Site with Willows'', 1846
File:Wohnzimmer mit Menzels Schwester (1847) - Adolf Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel (Neue Pinakothek).jpg|''Living Room with the Artist's Sister'', 1847
File:1847 Menzel Schlafzimmer Kuenstler Ritterstraße anagoria.JPG|''The Bedroom of the Artist in the Ritterstraße'', 1847
File:Mistrzowie pastelu, Muz Nar, Wwa, 2016.01.30, fot I Nowicka (1) CORR.jpg|Study of a Man with a Ruff Collar, c. 1850
File:Adolph Menzel - Flötenkonzert Friedrichs des Großen in Sanssouci - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Frederick the Great Playing the Flute at Sanssouci]]'', 1852
File:Menzelhochkirch.jpg|''Frederick II at Hochkirch'', 1856
File:Adolph Menzel - Begegnung mit Kaiser Joseph II in Neiße 1769.jpg|''[[The Meeting of Frederick II and Joseph II in Neisse in 1769]]'', 1857
File:Menzel, Adolph - Studentenfackelzug.jpg|''Students illuminated procession'', 1859
File:Krönung_1861.JPG|''Coronation of Wilhelm I'', 1865
File:Adolf Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel - Pariser Wochentag - museum kunst palast Düsseldorf.jpg|''Weekday in Paris'', 1869
File:Menzel, Adolph von - The Studio Wall - 1872.jpg|''[[Studio Wall]]'', 1872
File:MenzelAdolph Ballsouper02.JPG|''Supper at the Ball'', 1878
File:Adolf Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel 026.jpg|''[[Corpus Christi (feast)|Fronleichnamsprozession]] in [[Hofgastein]]'', 1880
File:At the beer garden (1883) - Adolf Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel (Museum Georg Schäfer).jpg|''At the Beer Garden'', 1883
File:Adolph Menzel, Japanese Artist at Work, 1886, NGA 52630.jpg|''Japanese Artist at Work'', 1886, graphite on paperboard, [[National Gallery of Art]]
</gallery>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite journal |last=Busch-Salmen |first=Gabriele |title=Adolf Menzels 'Flötenkonzert Friedrich der Großen in Sanssouci': Ein vertrautes Gemälde, 150 Jahre nach seiner Fertigstellung neu gesehen |journal=Music in Art: International Journal for Music Iconography |volume=28 |issue=1–2 |date=2003 |pages=127–146 |issn=1522-7464 }}
* Eisler, Colin. ''Masterworks in Berlin: A City's Paintings Reunited''. Bulfinch, 1996. {{ISBN|0-8212-1951-0}}
* [[Michael Fried|Fried, Michael]]. ''Menzel's Realism: Art and Embodiment in Nineteenth-Century Berlin''. London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. {{ISBN|0-300-09219-9}}
* Keisch, Claude, et al. ''[https://archive.org/details/adolphmenzel18150000menz/ Adolph Menzel 1815–1905: Between Romanticism and Impressionism]''. London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996. {{ISBN|0-300-06954-5}}
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Menzel, Adolph Friedrich Erdmann von|volume=18|pages=146–147}}

==Further reading==
* Karl Scheffler, ''Adolf Menzel: Der Mensch, das Werk.'' Berlin: Cassirer, 1915.
* Elfried Bock, ''Adolph Menzel: Verzeichnis seines graphischen Werkes''. Berlin: Amsler & Ruthardt, 1923.
* Werner Schmidt, ''Adolf Menzel: Zeichnungen Verzeichnis und Erläuterungen''. National-Galerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, 1955.
* Ulrich Bischoff, [[Jens Christian Jensen]], Richard Hoppe-Sailer, Wulf Schadendorf, Johann Schlick, Jürgen Schultze, ''Adolph Menzel: Realist – Historist – Maler des Hofes''. Exhibition catalog. Schweinfurt: Weppert, 1981.
* Gisela Hopp, Eckhard Schaar, [[Werner Hofmann (art historian)|Werner Hofmann]], eds., ''Menzel – der Beobachter''. Exhibition catalog. Munich: Prestel, 1982.
* Jost Hermand, ''Adolph Menzel mit Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten'' (''Rowohlts Monographien'', vol. 361). Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1986.
* Gisold Lammel, ''Adolph Menzel. Frideriziana und Wilhelmiana''. Dresden: Verlag der Kunst, 1987.
* Claude Keisch and Marie Ursula Riemann-Reyher, eds.: ''Adolph Menzel 1815–1905: Between Romanticism and Impressionism''. London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.
* Michaela Diener, ''„Ein Fürst der Kunst ist uns gestorben“: Adolph von Menzels Nachruhm im Kaiserlichen Deutschland (1905–1910)''. Regensburg: Roderer, 1998.
* Hubertus Kohle, ''Adolph Menzels Friedrichbilder: Theorie und Praxis der Geschichtsmalerei im Berlin der 1850er Jahre''. Munich and Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2001.
* Christina Grummt, ''Adolph Menzel – zwischen Kunst und Konvention, die Allegorie in der Adressenkunst des 19. Jahrhunderts''. Berlin: Reimer, 2001.
* [[Michael Fried]], ''Menzel's Realism: Art and Embodiment in Nineteenth-Century Berlin''. London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
* Jens Christian Jensen, ''Adolph Menzel''. Cologne: DuMont, 2003.
* Werner Busch, ''Adolph Menzel: Leben und Werk''. Munich: Beck, 2004.
* Bernhard Maaz, ed., ''Adolph Menzel radikal real''. Munich: Hirmer, 2008.
* Werner Busch, ''Adolph Menzel: Auf der Suche nach der Wirklichkeit''. Munich: Beck, 2015.
* Anja Grebe, ''Menzel, Maler der Moderne''. Berlin: Verlag Eisengold, 2015.
* Claudia Czok, "Menzel, Adolph (Adolph Friedrich Erdmann von)", in ''De Gruyter: Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker'', vol. 89. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2016, pp.&nbsp;117–121.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Adolph von Menzel}}
* [http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/71300 ''German masters of the nineteenth century: paintings and drawings from the Federal Republic of Germany''], a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Adolph Menzel (no. 60–64)
* [http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/60673/rec/6 ''Degas: The Artist's Mind''], exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art fully available online as PDF, which contains material on Adolph Menzel (see index)
* {{LCAuth|n50059021|Adolph Menzel|73|ue}}

{{Adolph Menzel}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Menzel, Adolph}}
[[Category:German printmakers]]
[[Category:German male painters]]
[[Category:German history painters]]
[[Category:German untitled nobility]]
[[Category:Artists from the Province of Silesia]]
[[Category:Artists from Wrocław]]
[[Category:German war artists]]
[[Category:1815 births]]
[[Category:1905 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century German war artists]]
[[Category:Prussian Academy of Arts alumni]]
[[Category:Burials at Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof I, Berlin]]
[[Category:Honorary members of the Royal Academy]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)]]
[[Category:Adolph Menzel| ]]