Adolph Menzel (1815–1905). The Tireless Observer

Adolph Menzel is considered one of the most important German artists.

His long life spanned almost the entire 19th century, and with it the changing currents and phenomena in art. In Menzel's painting, graphic and drawn work we find references to, to use traditional terms, Biedermeier, Romanticism, Realism, Historicism and Impressionism.

The National Museum in Warsaw holds 45 drawings and over 200 prints by the artist. At the exhibition we will present them in two contexts. On the one hand, this first monographic presentation of Menzel's work in Poland will show, thanks to cooperation with the Alte Nationalgalerie and the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin, and with the national museums in Wrocław and Poznań, paintings, drawings and prints illustrating all aspects of his rich output. The second important theme will be the provenance of Menzel's drawings and prints from the MNW collection, which come from pre-war German collections. This group is excellently suited to broader reflection on the fate of works that became the property of Polish cultural institutions as a result of the changes of borders in 1945. As if in a lens, the contemporary challenges of provenance research on works of art converge in it.