Adolph von Menzel

Frau J. Hainauer, Berlin (acquired directly from the artist in 1876)

Hermann Knackfuss, Adolph Menzel, Bielefeld and Lipzig, 1895, p. 89,  illustrated p. 73, fig. 79 (as Wer steckt da oben)
Hugo von Tschudi, Ausstellung von Werken Adolph v. Menzels in der kgl. Nationalgalerie, Berlin, 1905, no. 246
Hugo von Tscuhi, Adolph von Menzel : Abbildungen seiner Gemälde und Studien, auf Grund der von der Kgl. Nationalgalerie im Frühjahr 1905 veranstalteten Ausstellung, Munich, 1906, no. 617

 

 

The following condition report was kindly provided by Alvarez Fine Art Services, Inc.: The work is executed on a thick paper, probably a 2-ply structure that seems to be made of a clean and refined pulp. Structurally it is in excellent condition, without tears, punctures or any planar distortions. In raking light a few incised lines are noticeable in the upper-left quadrant which appear to have been created by the artist previous to executing the work. Certain darker areas in the man's hand, his cuff, the ruff of his collar, beard, nose, forehead, and the wrinkles of his eyes and ears, would appear to be the discoloration of what would have been lead white highlights. In addition, there is incipient cupping in places where the gum arabic has accumulated, but it appears stable and in no need of intervention at this time.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Menzel's Who Goes There?, with its apparently historical subject, a Renaissance-era court protector in sumptuous costume, posed in a darkened room with a bottle-glass paned window, would seem the antithesis of the hard laboring men, sweat-stained undershirts and clamoring factory's machines of the artist's masterwork The Iron Rolling Mill (Modern Cyclops) (1875, oil on canvas, Nationalgalerie, Berlin).  Yet, with closer examination, it is evident that Who Goes There?, like The Iron Rolling Mill, similarly reflects Menzel's consistent commitment to original technique and developing a very "modern" style. The artist had long been interested in fragmentary, disjointed compositions in which figures, buildings, or other pictorial elements were cut-off at the picture's edge or placed in strange positions. The very title of the present work, in conjunction with its figure glancing upwards, left hand ready at the hilt of his weapon, his right arm, and legs cropped out of the picture space, creates a visual tension and narrative mystery.  The perspective of the scene places the viewer slightly below the man, allowing for a precise appreciation of his wiry beard, how the light from above illuminates the moustache and filters downward through his graying whiskers; each wrinkle around his eye stands in relief, his eyebrows arched in surprise at an unknown presence outside of the picture space.  The longer one examines the man and all his careful detailing, the more one senses his tense posture and notices his almost entreating expression. Such a specific dynamic between subject and viewer is common in Menzel's work, allowing for an "optical empathy" as the spectator comes to perceive Menzel's characters as "immediately present" (Peter-Klaus Schuster, "Menzel's Modernity," in Adolph Menzel, 1815-1910, Between Romanticism and Impressionism, exh. cat., eds. Claude Keisch and Marie Ursula Reimann-Reyher, New Haven, 1996, p. 146-148).  Contemporary critics of the artist's work understood such a "modern" experience.  In his 1895 monograph, Hermann Knackfuss notes that in seeing Who Goes There?  "the viewer is left the task of guessing the thoughts of the man" wondering what the physical and psychological interaction of the two figures (both seen and unseen) might be (as translated from the German, p. 89). As interpreted by Knackfuss, this unseen figure is someone to "distrust and who rouses indignation within [the man].... His clenched fist grips the hilt of his dirk" (as translated from the German, Knackfuss, p. 89).

Such perceptive and emotional interpretations are testament to Menzel's brilliant technique. Knackfuss identifies the man's ready weapon, a dirk, as a danger sign and a key to interpreting the overall work. Menzel depicts the dirk accurately as a cut-down sword blade, mounted on a dagger hilt, its finely detailed, etched decorative surface no disguise for its sharp, shortened steel, ideal for easy and brutal thrusts. The artist had long studied armament and amour, with approximately twenty watercolors and gouaches on colored paper issued in just a few weeks in late 1865 to early 1866, inspired by the pieces that shared the same room in the royal palace where he had been working on the Coronation of William I (1865, oil on canvas, Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten, Potsdam) (Michael Fried, Menzel's Realism, Art and Embodiment in Nineteenth Century Berlin, New Haven, 2002, p. 55).  Moreover, the medium of Who Goes There? also adds to its effective power. Painted in 1876, it anticipates Menzel's ever more frequent turns to gouache in the 1880s.  The medium enabled the artist to create minute details built upon layers and layers of gouache, letting each ground dry before reworking the composition, sometimes scraping or rubbing colors in or out to reveal the shifting depths of tone below.  Menzel was particularly adept with this technique in miniature paintings, such as his 1864 studies of his own hands that could just as easily be models for those knotting knuckles and veiny backs of this guard's own. Menzel creates volume by using old, frayed bristle brushes that allowed for fine highlights.  His work is detailed in its exaction and full of saturated and often weighty blocks of color, providing for an overall affect like an oil painting but on a very small scale (Susanne von Falkenhausen, "Catalouge of Drawings," in Prints and Drawings by Adolph Menzel, A selection from the collections of the museum of West Berlin, exh. cat., Berlin, 1984, p 74; Keisch and Reimann-Reyer, p. 324-325).  By combining innovative technique with carefully studied historical subject and period artifacts, Menzel assumes a very modern stance, providing the viewer with his purest perceptions--which prevail regardless of the chosen setting or era.