print
- Museum number
- 1928,0516.10
- Title
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Object: Der Bärenzwinger im zoologischen Garten (The bear pit in the zoological gardens)
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Series: Versuche auf Stein mit Pinsel und Schabeisen
- Description
-
Plate 6: Five visitors to the zoo looking over the edge of the bear pit at five bears; one of the bears has climbed the centrally placed tree stump. 1851
Lithograph on chine collé
- Production date
- 1851
- Dimensions
-
Height: 247 millimetres
-
Width: 196 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Plate 6 of the series 'Versuche auf Stein mit Pinsel und Schabeisen' (Experiments on stone with brush and scraper), in which Menzel reached the summit of his achievement as a lithographer. Menzel drew directly on the stone with a brush, in ink an chalk. He first covered the grainy surface of the stone with a thin wash of lithographic ink and then scratched out forms and light areas with a scraper. Similar effects were achieved in engraving with the aid of a burnishing tool.
For a more detailed description of Menzel's sophisticated technique, see Kappstein: Der Künstlerische Steindruck, Berlin, 1910 and a letter from the artist to C.H. Arnold from 4 June 1852, which was published in Tschudi: 'Aus Menzels jungen Jahren'. The Berlin Zoo was opened in 1844 and Menzel often drew there. For a more detailed dicussion of this print, see 'Prints and Drawings by Adolph Menzel - A selection from the collections of the museums of West Berlin, Exhibition catalogue, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1984, p. 180 (E.8.39).
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1928
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1928,0516.10
