The Balcony Room

The Balcony Room was painted in the Menzel family apartment on Schöneberger Strasse in Berlin, where Menzel lived with his mother and siblings. He painted it as a private work — it was never exhibited during his lifetime and remained essentially unknown until Hugo von Tschudi acquired it for the Nationalgalerie in January 1903, just two years before Menzel's death. Its first public showing came at a commemorative exhibition Tschudi organized after Menzel died in 1905. Painted 60 years before it was publicly seen, it is now regarded as one of the most quietly radical works in 19th-century German art and a precursor to Impressionism decades before the movement emerged in France.