Study of the Artist’s Sister Emilie
  • Adolph von Menzel
  • Breslau 1815 - 1905 Berlin
  • Study of the Artist’s Sister Emilie, ca. 1848
  • Pencil on paper with irregular borders
  • Menzel’s estate stamp on the verso (not in Lugt)
  • 108 × 150 mm
Provenance:
Collection Bernt B. Grönvold, Berlin/Bozen (1859-1923)
C. G. Boerner, Leipzig, June 1937, sale 195, lot 130
Arno Winterberg, Heidelberg, Oct. 2000, lot 943
Private collection, Rhine-Main (until 2013)

Menzel’s spontaneous study on a small, ragged piece of paper shows his younger sister Emilie (1823-1907) in their shared household. She wears the same hairstyle and rests on the same canapé as in her brother’s famous oil study in the holdings of the Kunsthalle in Hamburg (Fig. 1).