Moritz Edler von Kuffner, Vienna,

thence by dཧescent to his son, Stephan von Kuffner,

thence by descent ဣto Vera von Kuffner Eberstadt, New York,

her🦩 sale and othersꦗ, London, Sotheby's, 8 July 2015, lot 161;

William Louis-Dreyfus, Mount🃏 Kisco, New York (acquired from the above in 2015),

The Louis-Dreyfus Family Collections (by descent from𒉰 the above in 2016)

Hamburg, Le Claire Kunst, ‘A World caught with the eye and held by the pencil’: Drawings by Adolph Menzel, 2019, Stephen Ongpin Fine Art, no. 33

The present work, portraying the head of an old man 🀅turned away, is a highly emotive example of Menzel's virtuosity as a draughtsman, demonstrating the artist’s ability to couple crisp, bold lines with the soft, delicate effects created through the technique of stumping. These contrasting styles of handling allowed the artist, when necessary, to combin🔜e high levels of detail alongside the softer, more delicate textures required for the modelling of facial features or items of clothing. Menzel captures in this drawing the weary facial profile of an elderly man whilst simultaneously imbuing the work with immense emotional depth, creating through his subject’s unkempt hair and weather-beaten brow, a strong sense of pathos.

The present sheet once formed part of the exceptional collection of drawings by Adolph Menzel assembled by the Viennese industrialist and brewer Moritz Edler von Kuffner (1854-1939) (see Provenance). In May 1938, shortly after the Anschluss, thirteen Menzel drawings from the Kuffner collection were requested by the Albertina in Vienna, which sought to prevent their export by the family. In July of the same year, however, twelve of the thirteen Menzel drawings were returꦛnedꦚ to the family by the Albertina. Shortly thereafter the Kuffner family emigrated to Zurich, where Moritz died the following year.