adolf menzel's pupil carl johann arnold had seen the artist in 1850 "when he was going to have a foot bath, painting a study of his foot, life size, so that he completely forgot his initial intention". the lively curiosity for this subject never lessened and, eighteen years after the painting described here, menzel drew a large format picture of his half-bare right leg, adding the image of his left foot in a mirror. its perfect working and apparently autonomous movement, like a puppet, and at the same time the strange animal quality and cartilaginous aspect of this despised part of the body - and for this reason the object of fetishism - exerted a fascination over him "comparable to that of old dog-eared books or a wobbly scaffold".


adolf menzel, "the artist's foot", (1876), oil on wood"