Adolph von Menzel | Realist painter

Adolf von Menzel, in full Adolf Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel (1815-1905), German painter and printmaker, best known in his own day as a brilliant historical painter, whose patriotic works satisfied the public’s taste, engendered by Prussia’s continual expansion throughout the 19th century, for propagandistic art.

In the 20th century he was chiefly esteemed for his sensitive treatment of light and the original compositions of his small genre pictures.