Lot 31: Trinkender Kurgast

Adolf von Menzel (German, 1815-1905)
Trinkender Kurgast
signed with initials and dated 'A M/Okt 84' (lower right)
charcoal on paper
8 7/8 x 5¾ in. (22.4 x 14.7 cm.)
Executed in October, 1884.

Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, Nineteenth Century Drawings , 15 June-7 July 1995, no. 18.

Joey and Toby Tannenbaum, Toronto.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 12 October 1994, lot 326.
with Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London, by 1995.
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

Adolf von Menzel's drawings are noted for their extremely strong and confident handling. Most of his charcoal figurative drawings are studies for more finished works, including the present lot which is a preparatory drawing for Am Wärmekessel in Bad Kissingen (see fig. 1). Menzel executed a study of the same subject in a sketch book he used between 1884 and 1892, which is now in the Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen, Berlin.