Adolph von Menzel German, 1815-1905

According to Menzel's receipt-book (Vollmar, 1904-5, p. 93), the picture was purchased by a Mr Goldschmidt for 680 Talers as soon as it was finished
Hermann Pächter (Berlin-based art dealer, by 1900; Meyerheim [1906, p. 103] credits Pächter with rediscovering and buying the picture, and recalls celebrating the rediscovery with Menzel over a bottle of Château Margaux)
Jacob and Rosa Stern, San Francisco (by 1900, as per a dated certificate in Menzel's hand addressed to Jacob Stern (fig. 1); until 1927)
William Haas (d.1943) and Madeleine Haas Russell (d.1999), grandchildren of the above (William and Madeleine's mother Fanny Haas, née Stern, having died in 1920); thence by descent to the children of Madeleine Haas Russell

San Francisco, The California Palace of the Legion of Honor (Jacob Stern Permanent Loan Collection, from July 1928 until February 2007)
Paris, Musée d'Orsay; Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; Berlin, Alte Nationalgalerie: Adolph Menzel. Between Romanticism and Impressionism, 1996-7, no. 126 (exhibited in Washington only)

Helene Vollmar, 'Menzeliana', Moderne Kunst in Meisterholzschnitten, vol. 19, 1904-5, p. 183
Hugo von Tschudi, Adolph von Menzel. Abbildungen seiner Gemälde und Studien, Munich, 1905, no. 136
Paul Meyerheim, Adolph von Menzel. Erinnerungen, Berlin, 1906, p. 103, illustrated with a facsimile of the following certificate in Menzel's own hand intended for Jacob Stern (fig. 1): Das Original des umseitigen Bildes stellt dar: Meissonier in seinem Garten-Atelier zu Poissy 1868. Mit Zugrundelegung von Studien und Notizen an Ort und Stelle. Die Dame ist Madame Meissonier geb. Steinheil, gebürtig aus dem Elsass. Der bei ihr stehende Herr ist Ricard ein damaliger Portraitmaler - von namenhaften Ruf. Obige Notiz für den jetztigen Besitzer des Bildes Herrn Jakob Stern in San-Francisco. Berlin d. 14. October 1900. Adolph von Menzel. [The original of the painting illustrated on the reverse depicts: Meissonier in his garden studio at Poissy 1868. Based on studies and notes made on the spot. The lady is Mme Meissonier, née Steinheil, from Alsace. The man standing by her is Ricard, a portrait painter at the time - of some repute. Above note for the current owner of the picture, Mr Jakob Stern in San-Francisco. Berlin, 14th October 1900. Adolph von Menzel].
Gisold Lammel, ed., Exzellenz lassen bitten. Erinnerungen an Adolph Menzel, Leipzig, 1992, p. 208f.
Françoise Forster-Hahn, Menzels Realismus im Spiegel der französischen Kritik, exh. cat. Berlin, 1980, pp. 36-37, illustrated
Jens Christian Jensen, Adolf Menzel, Cologne, 1982, p. 104, p. 139, pl. 29
Gisold Lammel, Adolph Menzel und seine Kreise, Dresden & Basel, 1993, p. 169, fig. 111
Claude Keisch and Marie-Ursula Riemann-Reyher, eds., Adolph Menzel. Between Romanticism and Impressionism, exh. cat., Yale, 1996, pp. 339-41, discussed, p. 340, no. 126, illustrated in colour 
Views on Europe: Europe and German Painting in the Nineteenth Century, exh. cat., Brussels, Centre for Fine Arts, 2007, p. 55, illustrated

This condition report has been provided by Hamish Dewar, Hamish Dewar Ltd. Fine Art Conservation, 14 Masons Yard, Duke Street, St James's, London SW1Y 6BU. Adolph Von Menzel Messionier in Seinem Atelier in Poissy (Meissonier in his studio at Poissy) Oil on panel Structural condition The artists's panel is cradled and is providing a stable and secure structural support. Paint surface The paint surface would benefit from cleaning. The removal of the varnish layers would certainly not result in a considerable colour change but should be nonetheless worthwhile. There is a very fine craquelure pattern which is stable and not visually distracting. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows a few small retouchings, the most significant of which are: 1) on the face of the woman standing on the right of the composition, 2) a rectangular shaped retouching in the upper right, 3) a number of fine lines filling craquelure, which are most concentrated in the pattern of the carpet in the lower left of the composition. Some of these lines have slightly discoloured and visible in a strong natural light. They also appear slightly excessive. Summary The painting is therefore in good condition and should respond well to cleaning, restoration and revarnishing.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This intimate snapshot of the painter Ernest Meissonier at work in his summer studio at Poissy, with Mme Meissonier and fellow painter Louis Ricard looking on, is at once a masterful evocation of the age and a symbol of the artistic fraternity that Paris fostered at the time.

Menzel spent the summer of 1867 in Paris with fellow artist and friend Paul Meyerheim and his sister-in-law Elise to attend the Universal Exhibition, at which he received the silver medal for his painting Night Attack at Hochkirch. The vibrant French capital was at its height as the crossroads of the art world, and among the many artists Menzel met there were Alfred Stevens, Jean-Léon Gérôme, and Louis Ricard. As a melting pot of artistic creativity, and with its bustling streets crowded with visitors from around the world, Paris was the inspiration for some of Menzel's most ambitious paintings, including Afternoon in the Tuileries, acquired by the National Gallery, London, last year.

During the stay Menzel visited Meissonier (1815-91) several times at his house in Poissy. The two men had first met in Berlin in 1862, and over the years built up a close friendship. Knowingly or not, they had much in common: they were exactly the same age and diminutive in stature, and both shared a passion for history painting and a liking for small-format works. Their admiration for one another's work is testified by the present work, and Meissonier is known to have admired Menzel's Address at Leuthen for example.

By the time of Menzel's visit in 1867, Meissonier enjoyed enormous standing and wealth due to his historical genre and military pictures. Since 1846 he had owned a beautiful country house in Poissy, complete with a summer studio and stables to house the horses from which he made the animal studies for his paintings. Théophile Gautier wrote of the house that 'some of the rooms themselves are worthy of framing. They are as valuable as the master's paintings, of which they are copies.' (Agnès Dupasquier-Guignard, exh. cat., Lyon, 1993, p. 68). In a photograph from circa 1860-3 (fig. 3), Meissonier can be seen leaning against the door of the summer studio, the same one as in the painting. The photo shows the same easel and one of the greyhounds given to him by Alexandre Dumas fils.

In the present oil, Meissonier is seen working on what is likely to be the watercolour recorded by the Galerie Georges Petit in their Meissonier exhibition catalogue of 1893 as belonging to M. Lucien Gros, entitled L'Ordonnance (no. 967) and measuring 54 by 40 cm., described thus: 'At the foot of a tall building, an armed foot soldier chats with the aide-de-camp, a mounted hussar, holding in his left hand the reins of the officer's bay. On the left of the composition, above the buildings, an azur and white sky.'

Standing in the background and perusing what may be Meissonier's sketchbook is Ricard (1823-73), a renowned portraitist in his own right whose sitters included George Sand, Eugène Fromentin, and Menzel himself. Meyerheim describes him as 'an epigone, an alchemist, an assayer', and as 'one of the nicest people, and a real virtuoso in the art of conversation'.

Menzel's painting is remarkably informal and unposed. He depicts the master utterly absorbed in his work, oblivious to his guests, his hair dishevelled, his smock crumpled. The atmosphere is of intense artistic concentration, its essence made more palpable by the small format of the work. For all Menzel and Meissonier had in common, this compositional approach is also at the heart of what separates the two men artistically. For while Meissonier had a greater liking for detail and staged representative compositions (a standing self portrait, exhibited in 1867, depicts him as a dignified venetian gentleman wearing a red velvet overcoat), Menzel was forever experimenting and searching for inventive forms of expression, like Gustave Courbet whom he had met personally and whose work he admired.

Here, the restless, painterly brushstroke throws the painter's absorption into even greater relief, a symbol of the act of painting which is the picture's subject. Menzel depicts the studio not as an idealised, orderly setting, but as it really was, a working environment with all Meissonier's props and tools of the trade strewn pell-mell around the room. In his choice of viewpoint too, Menzel evokes a hermetically sealed world, the studio taking up almost the whole picture plane with the outdoor brightness seemingly introduced by the elegantly dressed visitors, Mme Meissonier and Ricard.

In the background on the seat of the stool can be seen one of the sculpted studies of a horse which Meissonier modelled in the 1860s for his Napoleonic paintings. Menzel had in his possession until his death the small bronze elephant by Barye which Meissonier had given him. The little sculpture appears as a symbol in a drawing done in his old age, entitled End of the Party (fig. 4), depicting the empty studio in the Sigismundstrasse in Berlin. Taking on a life of its own, the animal tries to escape from the picture, overturning a stool as it does so, possibly foreshadowing the painter's death.

It is ironic that the fraternal harmony was shattered by the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian war, which suddenly terminated the two men's friendship. Like many of his compatriots, Meissonier cut off all relations with Germany, declaring: 'No German has set foot in my house since the war, nor shall do [...]. Menzel and all my other contacts had the honour of coming to my house. I have not seen them since 1871 and I will never see them again.' (M. O. Gréard, Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier. Ses souvenirs - ses entretiens, Paris, 1897, pp. 307-8).

A related pencil drawing of the standing Ricard, presumably made by Menzel on the spot in Meissonier's studio and from which he worked up the figure in the finished painting, was sold at Villa Grisebach, Berlin, on 27 November 1999.

We are grateful to Dr Ursula Riemann-Reyher for her assistance in  cataloguing this work.