Fuseli to Menzel: Drawings and Watercolors in the Age of Goethe from a German Private Collection

The time around 1800 was a fascinating period of transition, of endings and new beginnings in all aspects of life: intellectually, socially, economically and politically. It was the time of the French Revolution, the fall of the Habsburg Empire (1806), secularization, the Napoleonic Wars, the Restoration. In the art of drawing, which was the "signature" of that era, contemporary changes in society could be found more subtly than in other genres. In the literary age of Goethe, the most influential artists produced masterpieces in the field of drawing, and many others devoted themselves to that genre exclusively. "Fuseli to Menzel" contains a selection of works by 47 artists from the late 18th and early 19th centuries representing Romanticism and other artistic trends of the period. The book presents new scholarly research and material, including illustrations which have never been published before and detailed biographies. The author focuses on landscapes, particularly on the artists' experience of Italy, and on portraits, especially self-portraits and portraits of other artists. Exquisite quality, vivid imagination, intellectual complexity and artistic perception characterize the watercolours and drawings presented here in this visually stunning volume.