Building Site with Willows

There is almost something threatening in the profusion of wind-tossed, silvery, shimmering branches in the foreground of this picture. Menzel discovered these willows not far from his flat in the Berlin in Schöneberger Straße near what was later to become the Landwehr Canal. Under a blue sky and bathed in harsh sunlight, beyond the timeless sight of horses drinking, as yet unfinished red and yellow brick houses with bricklayers working on the scaffolding herald the advance of the city into the countryside.