Frederick  the  Great  and  His  Heroes

Menzel, Adolph von (Breslau 1815 – Berlin 1905). (From the Age of King Frederick. War and Peace Heroes drawn by Adolf Menzel. Cut in wood by Eduard Kretzschmar [Oschatz 1807 – Leipsic 1858; and studio].) (1854/55.) (4^th ed. Berlin, R. Wagner, 1886.) Fol. (42.4 x 34.5 cm). 12 block wood engravings printed with tone plate (c. 30.5-31 x 21-21.5 cm). Stitched, in portfolio.

Menzel Catalog Berlin 1984, 211.1 with all illustrations per pp. 295-306. – The complete series of the 12 sheet, yet without the title sheet with Frederick’s portrait medallion, as block edition on light carton after 30 years vacancy on the market. Two editions in numbers had preceded and the third one of 1856, erroneously considered by earlier literature as first edition, as the now first bound edition. The present one printed by Giesecke & Devrient in Leipsic, arranged by the Kunst- und Verlagshandlung Wagner in Berlin which had taken over the original publisher Alexander Duncker there and previously had published three single sheets on silk.

Created 1850-1855 the sheets bear Menzel’s signature with date in the block as well as within the toneplate the engraver’s signature “Eduard Kretzschmar sc.” beside the publishers’ and printers’ addresses. But “According to Bock not all portraits were engraved by Eduard Kretzschmar himself, the proprietor of the (Leipsic) xylographic institute, but also partly by assistants (the xylographers Saalborn, H. Schuseil, Klitsch and Klavehn)” (cat. Berlin p. 293/II). “K.s studio enjoyed a considerable reputation in the 40s and 50s, but the productions of it can … no longer stand comparison with K.s personal early cuts. The ills. to Menzel’s From King Frederick’s Age … are not cut as accurately as those for the History of Frederick the Great” (Thieme-Becker XXI [1927], 510 f.).

König Friedrich – Prinz Heinrich – Der Dessauer – Fouqué – Prinz Eugen von Würtemberg – Winterfeldt – Keith – Belling – Zieten – Seydlitz – Schwerin – Herzog Ferdinand von Braunschweig .

“ In the catalog Hamburg 1982, no. 69, p. 127, for their unusually large format the wood engravings are

brought  in  relation  to  the  engraved  Baroque  portraits  of  princes

and interpreted as ‘monumentalized illustrations’ … In its time the work met with colossal approval with the public … ”

(Catalog Berlin as before, at the same time quoting Jordan, [The Work of Adolph Menzel], 1895, p. 23:)

“ It is kind of an epilogue to the older more epic glorifications of Frederick as it personifies the whole age in the figures of its chief heroes ”.

Offer no. 14,978 / EUR  480. / export price EUR  456. (c. US$ 590.) + shipping

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(Sign. L. B., October 18, 2007)