Study of an Old Woman from Magdeburg

Adolph Menzel

1891 · Graphite on paper · Robert Lehman Collection

This drawing, complete with the artist’s notations in the margins as to the color and material of the sitter’s costume, is a fine example of Menzel’s late interest in the quotidian. Probably made during the artist’s 1891 trip to Fulda and Weimar, when he would have passed through Magdeburg, a city in central Germany on the Elbe River, this sheet uses stumping and exhibits stark contrasts between light and dark—techniques that are typical of the artist’s work of this period.

Artist

Adolph Menzel

Date

1891

Medium

Graphite on paper

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975