Adolf Menzel 1815-1905

Posted in * Death Masks, - Undying Faces Book - Ernst Benkard, 1900's, Menzel, Adolf

Wikipedia entry for Adolf Menzel

ADOLF MENZEL.–During his lifetime Menzel’s art was, perhaps, regarded as belonging too exclusively to Brandenburg and Prussia, and he was exalted to high honours for dynastic reasons; yet he is and remains one of the most conscientious of graphic artists and realists in the second half of the nineteenth century. His free and picturesque sketches in oils have maintained his reputation among a generation of impressionists, better than the finished historical paintings by which he won widespread fame.Menzel was born on December 8, 1815, at Breslau, and died in Berlin on February 9, 1905. His death mask was taken by the sculptor Reinhold Begas and is in the National Gallery in Berlin. Photograph by Treue, Berlin.Black & White Photos and quotations from: Benkard, Ernst, & Green, Margaret (1927). Undying Faces, A Collection of Death Masks. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.