A bearded Man looking down to the Left

This drawing is characteristic of Menzel’s late graphic œuvre, when he worked predominantly in graphite or black chalk and focused on informal, close-up portraits, not of friends, but of people he saw in the streets of Berlin. Often executed as independent works rather than preparatory studies, these drawings reflect the artist’s sustained interest in close observation, exemplifying Menzel’s preference for isolating his subjects from a wider composition, emphasizing instead their distinctive features and individual presence.

The sheet was formerly in the collection of Moriz Edler von Kuffner (1854-1939), a Jewish Austrian industrialist and collector whose art collection ranked among the most important private collections of works on paper in Vienna. Following the Anschluss in 1938, the collection was inspected by Albertina curator Otto Benesch, and a number of works were confiscated or withheld from export by the Nazi authorities. Kuffner and his sons emigrated to Switzerland, having lost their business and property interests in Austria through Nazi persecution. The drawing was subsequently returned to and descended through the Kuffner family.