CATALOGUE / Adolph Menzel (1815–1905): Niestrudzony obserwator / The Tireless Observer

Adolph Menzel (1815–1905): Niestrudzony obserwator / The Tireless Observer, exhibition catalogue, edited by Piotr Borusowski, graphic design by Adam Glabas, 294 pp., illustrated hardback, National Museum in Warsaw, Warsaw 2026, ISBN 978-83-7100-513-8

A bilingual catalogue accompanying the exhibition “Adolph Menzel (1815–1905): The Tireless Observer”, which – in collaboration with Kupferstichkabinett and Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin and the national museums in Wrocław and Poznań – presented the paintings, drawings and prints of one of the most important German artists of the 19th century.
The book’s essays reveal the scope of Menzel’s artistic interests, this tireless observer of reality and “brilliant luminist” who made light one of the central protagonists of his work. Exhibition curator Piotr Borusowski discusses provenance research into the artist’s works held by the NMW, most of which come from pre-war German collections, while Anna Marie Pfäfflin, a researcher at the Kupferstichkabinett of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, traces the history of the relationship between the Schlesisches Museum der bildenden Künste in Wrocław and Berlin’s Nationalgalerie, uncovering the complicated provenance behind 50 of Menzel’s drawings. Their fate prompts a broader reflection on the routes by which artworks reached Polish cultural institutions after the border changes of 1945. The catalogue part of the book presents every work featured in the exhibition.

Prize: 140 zł

Publication available in the NMW Bookshop at 3 Aleje Jerozolimskie in Warsaw.