Adolph von Menzel Breslau 1815 - 1905 Berlin

With Colnaghi's, New York and London, 1992, cat. no. 53, reproduced

In the late 1880s and early 1890s, Menzel depicted café scenes on a number of occasions, and must have based the compositions of his paintings of this type on drawings such as this, made as he sat in one or other of Berlin's highly atmospheric cafés.  This sheet does not appear to be connected to any known painting or gouache, but can be compared with other sketches from the same year, including a watercolour of The Peterskeller in Salzburg, formerly in the Korte collection, Berlin (see H. von Tschudi, Adolph Menzel: Abbildungen seiner Gemälde und Studien, Munich 1906, pp. 434-5, cat. no. 665, reproduced), and a drawing of A Man Drinking and Two Studies of his Right Hand, formerly in the Held collection (see Selections from the Drawing Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Julius Held, exhibition catalogue, Binghamton, New York, and elsewhere, 1970, cat. no. 90, reproduced).