Adolph Menzel

Adolph Menzel was born in Breslau, now Wrocław, and moved to Berlin, where he took over his father’s lithography business as a teenager. He made his name with hundreds of wood-engraved illustrations for a history of Frederick the Great and later painted scenes from Frederick’s court, such as The Flute Concert of Frederick the Great at Sanssouci. His painting The Iron Rolling Mill is one of the first great pictures of industrial work, and his small private studies, such as The Balcony Room, anticipate Impressionism. He was one of the most honoured artists in Germany, and the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin holds many of his works.