The Back Garden

between 1850 and 1860

Adolph von Menzel German, 1815-1905

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Provenance

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Catalogue Raisonné

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Credit Line for Reproduction

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About the Artwork

In his realist images, Adolph von Menzel represented both the banality of private life and the public spectacle of historical and contemporary events in Germany. Here, with close attention to everyday details, he paints the humble subject of a domestic garden. Menzel represents human beings only obliquely, through the traces of their activity: the rows of vegetables to supply the kitchen and the drying white, red, and yellow laundry behind the fence. The unusual viewpoint and the cropping of the image make the composition appear to be a fragment as informal as a snapshot.

Title The Back Garden

Artwork Date between 1850 and 1860

Artist Adolph von Menzel

Life Dates 1815-1905

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. German

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 19 × 27 inches (48.3 × 68.6 cm) Framed: 34 3/4 × 42 3/4 × 4 1/4 inches (88.3 × 108.6 × 10.8 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department European Painting

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund and Mr. and Mrs. Allan Shelden III Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 1991.172

Markings

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Provenance

Paul Meyerheim [1842-1915] (Berlin, Germany);
1950's, art marker (Berlin, Germany);
1991, (Thomas Kessler, Zurich, Switzerland);
1991-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Wissman, F. W. European Vistas: Cultural Landscapes. Detroit, DIA, 2000, p. 62, (repr.).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

This work is in the public domain.

Adolph von Menzel, The Back Garden, between 1850 and 1860, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund and Mr. and Mrs. Allan Shelden III Fund, 1991.172.