A Man drinking, with a separate Study of a Hand

During his annual visits to the Bavarian spa town of Bad Kissingen in the late 19th Century, Adolph von Menzel found inspiration in the everyday activities of its visitors, producing a series of small gouaches and related charcoal studies, including the present sheet. This confidently executed charcoal drawing is a preparatory study for his 1884 watercolour 'Am Wärmekessel in Bad Kissingen' (currently untraced; see H. von Tschudi, Adolph von Menzel. Abbildungen seiner Gemälde und Studien, Munich, 1905, pp. 420-21, ill. no. 645) depicting spa guests drinking heated mineral water. Characteristic of Menzel’s strong and confident draughtsmanship, this drawing reflects his close observation of contemporary life. A further study of the same figure appears in a sketchbook that the artist used between 1884 and 1892, now in the Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen, Berlin.