54 ADOLF VON MENZEL In 1872 Menzel spent several weeks at the vast smelting works in Konigshiitte, Upper German, 1815­1905 Silesia, making many drawings of the iron­production process. He employed these Figure Studies studies in the execution of his masterpiece, The Iron Rolling Mill, 1875 (Berlin, Carpenter's pencil Nationalgalerie), one of the most important nineteenth­century paintings of an 37.9 x 26.3 cm (14 15/16 x 10 5/16 in.) industrial subject. Cat. I, no. 132; 84.GB.6 This study for The Iron Rolling Mill is clearly related to the figures in the center of the composition who are moving a glowing piece of iron toward the rollers, while their co­workers are shown eating and washing, indicating a change of shift. Menzel's almost photographic ability to record the interaction of light and form is fully in evidence in this drawing. The shifting, fractured quality of the shadows plus the roughness of the carpenter's pencil enhance the sense of the worker's performing heavy, physical labor. He is a monumental figure and as such embodies Menzel's view of the worker as the heroic prime mover in the advancement and progress of society. GERMAN AND SWISS SCHOOLS 69