Adolph Menzel

Private collection, Brussels

Berlin, Alte Nationalgalerie, February - May 2007, on loan

Menzel's interest in capturing the characters and expressions of those he observed is evident in this work, which relates to a drawing held by the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University (illustrated on p. 16 of Annette Schlagenhauff, ed., Adolph Menzel Works in Harvard Collections, 1991). Both focus on the overpowering and dramatic facial expression - the bearded man's look is wild and unruly. Claude Keisch suggests that this head study was likely inspired by one of the factory worker's expressions in Menzel's monumental realistic depiction of 1872-1875, The Iron Rolling Mill (Das Eisenwalzwerk), now in the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin.