Frederick the Great Playing the Flute at Sanssouci
An evening concert in the music room of Sanssouci, Frederick the Great's palace at Potsdam — the room survives almost unchanged.
Sanssouci Palace
The painting shows a real, identified place that you can find today. The exact spot the artist worked from is not necessarily known.
Frederick the Great Playing the Flute at Sanssouci — at a glance
- Artist
- Adolph von Menzel (1815–1905)
- Year
- 1850–1852
- Movement
- German Realism / history painting
- Place
- The music room, Schloss Sanssouci, Potsdam, Germany
- Viewpoint
- A researched reconstruction of a 1750s concert in a room that still exists
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 142 × 205 cm
- Now at
- Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin
Overview
Flute Concert of Sanssouci is one of a series of paintings Adolph von Menzel made around 1850 reconstructing the life of Frederick II of Prussia (Frederick the Great), a century after the events. It shows the king, an accomplished flautist, playing a solo by candlelight in the music room of his summer palace, accompanied on the harpsichord by C. P. E. Bach, with courtiers and his sister Wilhelmine listening. It is oil on canvas, about 142 by 205 cm, and it hangs in the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin.
The story behind the painting
Scholarship Menzel was steeped in the eighteenth century and researched the costumes, instruments, furniture and rooms obsessively. The concert shown is not a recorded single event but a plausible reconstruction of Frederick's well-attested evening chamber concerts of the 1750s, painted with almost documentary care to bring the reign vividly before a nineteenth-century Prussian public.
Where was Frederick the Great Playing the Flute at Sanssouci painted?
Scholarship Sanssouci, built for Frederick in 1745–47 on a vineyard terrace above Potsdam, still stands and is a museum (and a UNESCO World Heritage Site). The Konzertzimmer (music room), with its Rococo gilded wall carvings, mirrors, paintings and candelabra, survives largely intact, and Menzel painted its real decoration. Visitors can stand in the room today.
What is in the painting?
In a gilded Rococo room lit by chandeliers and wall candles, Frederick stands at the centre playing the flute, music on a stand before him. A small group of musicians accompanies him, the harpsichordist turned to watch. Along the right, seated ladies and standing officers listen; a woman leans forward attentively. Mirrors multiply the candle flames and the gilt carving glints in the warm light.
Look closely
The king at the flute
Frederick stands under the brightest candlelight at the centre, playing a solo.
C. P. E. Bach
The harpsichordist, turned to watch the king for his cue.
The listening audience
Seated ladies and standing officers along the right; one woman leans forward, absorbed.
The candle flames and mirrors
Dozens of small flames, multiplied in the mirrors and glinting on the gilt carving — Menzel's study of artificial light.
The real Rococo décor
The gilded wall carvings and panelling are those of the actual music room at Sanssouci.
Analysis
Composition and light
The king is picked out by candlelight at the centre of a wide, glittering room, with the audience ranged along one side.
Scholarship Menzel centres Frederick under the strongest light and lets the rest of the room fall away into pools of shadow and reflected candle-flame. The perspective of the panelled wall and the row of listeners carries the eye along; the many small points of light — flames, mirrors, gilt, jewels — are the painting's real display of skill.
Colour and light
Warm gold and cream of candlelit Rococo décor, with cool notes in the women's silk dresses.
The palette is dominated by the yellow-gold of candlelight on white-and-gilt panelling, set against the silver-blue, pink and green of the dresses and the black of the men's coats. Menzel studied artificial light closely, and the flicker and fall-off of the candles is rendered with unusual truth.
Meaning and interpretation
Interpretations differ. What the artist documented, what museums and scholars propose, and later or speculative theories are marked and kept separate.
The philosopher-king at leisure
The picture presents Frederick not as a warlord but as a cultivated man of the Enlightenment — musician, host, friend of artists — an image congenial to Menzel's nineteenth-century audience and to Prussian national feeling.
History as reconstruction
It is a landmark of nineteenth-century history painting precisely because it is so researched and so plausible, aiming to make the past feel actually inhabited rather than staged.
History & provenance
The painting was acquired by the Berlin National Gallery in the 1870s and hangs in the Alte Nationalgalerie on Museum Island.
Sources
- Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) — collection entry for Adolph von Menzel, ‘Flötenkonzert Friedrichs des Großen in Sanssouci’ (1850–52; oil on canvas, c. 142 × 205 cm)
- Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg — Schloss Sanssouci, the Konzertzimmer
Frequently asked
Did this exact concert happen?
Not as a single recorded event. Menzel reconstructed a typical evening chamber concert of Frederick the Great's from the 1750s, a century later, with painstaking research into the room, costumes and instruments.
Is the room real, and can you visit it?
Yes. It is the music room (Konzertzimmer) of Sanssouci, Frederick's palace above Potsdam, built in 1745–47. The palace is a museum and World Heritage Site, and the Rococo music room survives largely intact.
Who is at the harpsichord?
The composer Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, who served as Frederick's court harpsichordist. The king himself was a serious flute player and composer.
Why did Menzel paint Frederick the Great so often?
He made a large series of Frederick subjects around 1850 for a nineteenth-century Prussian public keen to see its history brought to life; this is the most famous of them.
Where is the painting now?
In the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin.
Related paintings
The Coronation of Napoleon
1807
David's researched state occasion — the other pole of nineteenth-century history painting, on a grander and more official scale.
A Burial at Ornans
1841
Courbet's life-size provincial funeral of 1850 — Realism turned on the present instead of the historical past, in the same years.