The wandering circus (Camel drivers in Partenkirchen)

Partenkirchen, in the Bavarian Alps, was a popular destination for German travelers in the nineteenth century, and the presence of a wandering circus with camel drivers there in 1884 represents the kind of cultural encounter — between the settled Alpine community and the traveling spectacle world — that Menzel found irresistible. Menzel traveled extensively through Bavaria and Austria in his later career, and his southern German subjects share the quality of sharp external observation: he is always slightly the outsider recording what he sees with fresh eyes. A traveling circus bringing camels to a Bavarian village would have struck local residents and tourists alike as exotic and visually spectacular, and Menzel's response captures the intersection of the ordinary and the extraordinary that characterizes his most engaging genre subjects. The work on cardboard suggests a relatively small format suited to rapid documentation, and its presence in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts reflects the broad international distribution of his work.

Working on cardboard with likely oil or gouache, Menzel builds a composition centered on the exotic animals against the familiar Alpine setting. The contrast between the camels' desert-adapted forms and the Bavarian architecture creates the visual incongruity that is the subject's point.