The Jewish Cemetery in Prague
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This painting, with its bold experimental technique, probably records a fleeting moment during Menzel’s 1852 stay in Prague, where he visited the famous Old Jewish Cemetery. Menzel relied on the imaginative power of vision to resolve the image: ambiguous, broad strokes form the tombstones; a blending of contours nearly merges the treetops and leaden sky; and, in the middle ground, lighter tones shine through scraped-off layers of paint. Although it would have been considered incomplete according to the academic terms of the time, it is unlikely that Menzel intended to bring this work to a higher degree of finish. The work remained unsigned in the artist’s studio; it was first shown in the artist’s commemorative retrospective in 1905.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Jewish Cemetery in Prague
- Artist: Adolph Menzel (German, Breslau 1815–1905 Berlin)
- Date: 1852–1853
- Geography: Country of Origin Germany
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 27 3/8 × 22 9/16 in. (69.5 × 57.3 cm)
Framed: 31 1/8 in. × 26 in. × 2 3/16 in. (79 × 66 × 5.5 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie
- Rights and Reproduction: bpk, Berlin / Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin / Art Resource, NY, photograph: Klaus Goeken
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art