The Meeting of Frederick II and Joseph II in Neisse in 1769

Adolph Menzel painted this in the 1850s, but he set it almost a century earlier, in August 1769. The two men on the staircase are Frederick the Great of Prussia and the young Habsburg emperor Joseph, who had pushed for years to meet the older king he admired, over his mother's objections. Menzel was Prussia's tireless historian in paint, and he chose the exact instant of greeting. Joseph hurries up the steps from below while Frederick comes down toward him, so the emperor has to look up at the king. He put a look of open, almost boyish admiration on Joseph's face. Menzel researched the uniforms and the setting down to the buttons, the way he did for everything he painted about Frederick's reign.