# A Flute Concert of Frederick the Great at Sanssouci

[View the canonical artwork record](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/menzel-adolph-von-rbd83b6d1c9b8da/a-flute-concert-of-frederick-the-great-at-sanssouci-r733bba26cb90c9>)

## Artwork

- Artist: [MENZEL, Adolph von](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/menzel-adolph-von-rbd83b6d1c9b8da>)
- Date: 1851-1900
- Technique: Oil on canvas, 142 x 205 cm

## Commentary

Menzel&#39;s oils of the 1850s and 1860s presented dazzling tableaux of a vastly wealthy, conspicuously refined Potsdam court under Frederick the Great \(1712-1786\), depicted as if on the same gargantuan plane as Versailles, in a Prussian palace more French than the one near Paris. Canvases such as A Flute Concert were images the monarch may have wished painted in his own day, yet none of his artists were up to this task. The Flute Concert depicts the king playing the flute in his music room at Sanssouci. He was a gifted musician who played the transverse flute. He composed 100 sonatas for the flute as well as four symphonies. His court musicians included C. P. E. Bach, Johann Joachim Quantz, and Franz Benda. A meeting with Johann Sebastian Bach in 1747 in Potsdam led to Bach writing The Musical Offering. &lt;p&gt; &lt;table align=left cellpadding=5 border=1 width=320 bgcolor=&#34;\#99cccc&#34;&gt; &lt;tr valign=middle&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;/support/gif/listen.gif&#34; border=0 valign=middle&gt; Suggested listening \(streaming mp3, 6 minutes\):&lt;br&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;\#&#34; onClick=&#34;w=window.open \(&#39;/music1/bach/bach\_bwv\_1079-1\_musikalisches.html&#39;, &#39;newWin&#39;, &#39;scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=350,height=350&#39;\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return true&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Johann Sebastian Bach: Musikalisches Offer, BWV 1079 No.1 Ricercare &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;

## Related artworks

- [Afternoon at the Tuileries Garden \(detail\)](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/menzel-adolph-von-rbd83b6d1c9b8da/afternoon-at-the-tuileries-garden-detail-r815991314c6b33>)
- [Afternoon at the Tuileries Garden](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/menzel-adolph-von-rbd83b6d1c9b8da/afternoon-at-the-tuileries-garden-r74cf6633d12384>)
- [Living-Room with the Artist&#39;s Sister](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/menzel-adolph-von-rbd83b6d1c9b8da/living-room-with-the-artists-sister-r6a9bbb3dee7db3>)
- [Moonlight on the Friedrichskanal in Old Berlin](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/menzel-adolph-von-rbd83b6d1c9b8da/moonlight-on-the-friedrichskanal-in-old-berlin-r8089c8c1d4fa32>)
- [Rear of House and Backyard](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/menzel-adolph-von-rbd83b6d1c9b8da/rear-of-house-and-backyard-rbac5610a13e2c3>)
- [Sister Emily Sleeping](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/menzel-adolph-von-rbd83b6d1c9b8da/sister-emily-sleeping-r0420571dc2f87a>)
- [Sister Emily Sleeping](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/menzel-adolph-von-rbd83b6d1c9b8da/sister-emily-sleeping-r4b37b6b1e6929f>)
- [Storm on Tempelhof Mountain](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/menzel-adolph-von-rbd83b6d1c9b8da/storm-on-tempelhof-mountain-rf368436060e3de>)
- [Studio Interior with Casts](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/menzel-adolph-von-rbd83b6d1c9b8da/studio-interior-with-casts-r5c6d558449f052>)
- [Study of a Woman with a Fan](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/menzel-adolph-von-rbd83b6d1c9b8da/study-of-a-woman-with-a-fan-rd12d8cfa62d940>)
- [Théatre du Gymnase](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/menzel-adolph-von-rbd83b6d1c9b8da/thatre-du-gymnase-rffb68eb2d79677>)
- [The Allegiance of the Silesian Diet before Frederick II in Breslau](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/menzel-adolph-von-rbd83b6d1c9b8da/the-allegiance-of-the-silesian-diet-before-frederick-ii-in-breslau-r0c68fe3ead89c7>)

## Attribution

[Web Gallery of Art](<https://beta.wga.hu/pages/about>)