DOI issue:
Vol. 6, No. 3 (October, 1916)
DOI article:Cary, Elisabeth Luther: Adolf von Menzel
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49980#0436
directness of 2Esop and makes an appeal that is uni-
versal. And it is perfectly typical of Menzel. Perhaps
he never really asked a stout woman at a ball to stand
still so that he could draw the “funny lines” about her
waist, but the fact that the story could be told of him
is sufficiently eloquent. “Universal perfection” had
nothing at all to say to him. He was simply interested
in everything that had the remotest bearing upon his
work. His work was his universe and so in a sense the
universe became his work. That is the way with people
who weave their personalities into their activities with
so fine a thread so closely held. We never shall know
in the least what Menzel was, back of his self-expres-
sion, because with that he was so constantly occupied
that he left no crevice through which to discern those
intimate truths of temperament and character that
withdraw in proportion as the more obvious truths
come forward.
versal. And it is perfectly typical of Menzel. Perhaps
he never really asked a stout woman at a ball to stand
still so that he could draw the “funny lines” about her
waist, but the fact that the story could be told of him
is sufficiently eloquent. “Universal perfection” had
nothing at all to say to him. He was simply interested
in everything that had the remotest bearing upon his
work. His work was his universe and so in a sense the
universe became his work. That is the way with people
who weave their personalities into their activities with
so fine a thread so closely held. We never shall know
in the least what Menzel was, back of his self-expres-
sion, because with that he was so constantly occupied
that he left no crevice through which to discern those
intimate truths of temperament and character that
withdraw in proportion as the more obvious truths
come forward.