MENZEL, ADOLF VON ( A German historical and genre painter, illus trator, and lithographer, one of the' leading er; of the present day. Ile was born at Bres lau. December S. 1815, and when a mere lad as sisted his father, a lithographer. in his work. To give him opportunity for study. the family removed to Berlin in 1830, but he soon relin quished as unprofitable the ordinary routine' of training at the Academy, and may truly lie called His death in 1831 threw' the support of the family upon his shoulders, and he worked hard at lithographic commission;. In 1S33 he executed for the publisher Sachse "The Earthly Pilgrimage,', a series of ten drawings in pen and ink illustrating poem, which attracted immediate attention. Among his other efforts in lithography, the on Stone with Brush and in which he produced effects re sembling mezzotinting, are of especial interest as a novel departure, in which for a long, time he had no imitator or rival. The real beginning of triumphs was the year 1839. when he began the illustration of Kugler's History of Prcderieh the Great, a task occupying three years. These four hundred designs, drawn in pencil on wood and reproduced in brought him royal and popular favor, and gave a new impetus to the art of wood engraving in Germany. :Menzel began to paint at the age of twenty, without formal instruction.
of his paintings the best known are the sodes from the history of the great Prussian monarch. These include: The "Round Table of Frederick the Great at Sans Sutler (1850), and the (1852 ), both in the Na tional Gallery. Berlin; "Frederick the Great
(1854). Raven Gallery, Berlin: "Frederick and Ills Men at (1856), in the Royal Palace at Potsdam. He appears as the painter-historian of the modern Hohen zollern in another series, of which the tion of King William I. at in the Royal Palace. Berlin, and "Departure of the King for the Seat of War in (1871), in the National Gallery. Berlin, are the most conspicu ous examples. Among a great variety of genre pictures, the "Modern Cyclops" (1875, National Gallery, Berlin). representing the interior of a rolling mill in Silesia, is a sterling piece of real istic characterization and of masterly light ef fects. Remarkable for this latter quality, as well as for its keen satire, is Ball (1879), and a later noteworthy example is the Morning" (1885), in the National lery. Berlin. Besides various other honors be stowed upon him, Menzel was made a Privy Councilor, with the title of excellency, on his eightieth birthday, in 1895. and received the Order of the Black Eagle, conferring hereditary nobility, in 1899. For his biography, consult: Sondermann (Magdeburg, 1895), and Knackfuss (Bielefeld, 1897) ; also Jordan, Des Werk Adolf Menzels (Munich, 1895) ; Waldstein, in Harper's Magazine (New York, 1896), and Magazine of _I et (London, 1884 and 1901).