Falls of the Rhine at Schaffhausen

The great cascade of the Rhine roars between rock walls in this compact graphite study, the churning water built up in rapid, searching strokes. Adolph von Menzel, the foremost German painter and draughtsman of his century, drew the falls at Schaffhausen in 1885, late in the career in which his studies from nature had become almost legendary for their range and energy. The small sheet, worked in graphite with bold tonal stumping, catches the immense force of the water with an economy and freedom that show the master at work as a pure draughtsman in front of the motif.