View of rear buildings

Painted in 1847 and held in the Alte Nationalgalerie, 'View of Rear Buildings' belongs to a remarkable group of intimate Berlin views Menzel made in the 1840s, now recognised as among the most forward-looking paintings of their era in any European school. Working from his studio window or from back courtyards, he painted the unglamorous rear faces of Berlin tenements and neighbouring buildings with a directness and tonal sophistication that places these small canvases close to the spirit of French Impressionism, which would not emerge for another two decades. These works were largely unknown in his lifetime, made for himself rather than exhibition; they were discovered by a later generation of critics who saw in them a revolutionary modernity. The Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin holds the largest concentration of Menzel's work.

Menzel builds the composition from the tonal contrasts of sunlit and shaded wall surfaces, the architectural geometry of rear windows and roof edges creating a rigorous abstract structure beneath the descriptive surface.