Beati Possidentes (Blessed are those who have)

Painted in 1888 on paper and held in the Museum Georg Schäfer, 'Beati Possidentes (Blessed are those who have)' takes its title from a Latin legal principle meaning those in possession of property have a presumptive right to it — a phrase carrying obvious ironic potential in the context of a late-nineteenth-century social observation. Menzel's title choice signals a commentary on social inequality or bourgeois self-satisfaction that is unusual in his generally observational body of work. The late 1880s were a period of increasing social tension in the German Empire, with the rise of the labour movement providing context for a Latin tag about material possession. The Museum Georg Schäfer holds significant examples of Menzel's works on paper. By 1888 Menzel was in his seventies and the German Empire was in its second decade, the social contradictions of rapid industrialisation and bourgeois prosperity becoming increasingly visible.

The work-on-paper format suits this observational subject with social commentary overtones — quick, acute, made without laboriousness. Menzel renders figures' posture and presentation with precision, the ironic weight of the title carried by implied gesture rather than caricature.