Adolph von Menzel

Königlichen National-Galerie, Berlin (L.1640);

Private collection (Sammlung L.), Breslau, until 1932,

their sale ('Adolph von Menzel: Guaschen, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen der Sammlung L- Breslau'), Berlin, Rudolph Lepke, 23 February 1932, lot 179 ('Baumstudie');

Private collection, Baden-Württemberg,

sale, Berlin, Villa Grisebach, 1 December 2006, lot 5;

with Jill Newhouse, New York, in 2007,

William Louis-Dreyfus, Mount Kisco, New York (acquired from the above in 2007),

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

Probably Berlin, Königliche National-Galerie, Ausstellung von Werken Adolph von Menzels, 1905, по. 1879 ('Baumstudie');

Munich, Galerie Caspari, Adolph von Menzel 1815-1905: Ölgemälde, Gouachen, Pastelle, Aquarelle und Zeichnungen, 1932, no.40 ('Baumstudie. Bleistift-Zeichnung, bez. A. M., Höhe 20 cm, Breite 12,5 cm. Donop 1609);

Hamburg, Le Claire Kunst, in collaboration with Stephen Ongpin Fine Art, London, ‘A World caught with the eye and held by the pencil’: Drawings by Adolph Menzel, 2019, no. 30

L. von Donop, Katalog, der Handzeichnungen Aquarelle und Oelstudien in der Königl. National-Galerie, Berlin 1902, p.406, no. 1609 ('Baumstudie. - Bez. A. M. Papier, Blei, h. 0,302, br. 0,125.", not reproduced)

Menzel made numerous drawings of trees throughout his long career. As he wrote to his brother-in-law during one of his travels, 'By the way, the day was, without jest, very beautiful and very interesting due to the really fine stock of trees in this place. I've rarely seen such mighty oaks and beeches as are here." Although undated studies such as this are difficult to place chronologically within the artist's oeuvre, the present sheet may be tentatively dated to the late 1880s or early 1890s.