Hitler the painter

Always wondered about the paintings Hitler made. I just came across this article about his artistic life before he wanted to take over the world.

link deleted...see below...

[ 16 October 2002, 01:18 PM: Message edited by: Stevin Oudshoorn ]

 

Of course, you know who the 'International Campaign For Real History' is...

 

I think I heard one time from a few experts that Hitler wastn't a bad painter at all!

I don't know who said that, so if you know???

 

Martin,

I did not! Thanks for pointing it out. Let me put up a disclaimer here in that case:

I was only interested in what Hitler actually painted. I had never seen before one of his creative exploits. I dont want to endorse Irving's views and don't want to promote his thought. This isa Washington Post article, which can be read on the Post's website when you have a subscribtion.

decided to remove the link. Don't want to use these forums to direct people to Irvine's site. If they want to read the article they can go here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/searches/mainsrch.htm

Type in The Art of Evil (author Fisher) in the WP Archives section and a link will lead you there.

[ 16 October 2002, 01:17 PM: Message edited by: Stevin Oudshoorn ]

 

Don't worry, Stevin - I didn't for a moment think that you were one of Mr Irving's zealots !

Just goes to show that you're never sure where you're going to end up on the 'net....

 

No, but I could/should have been more thougthful before I posted the link. Besides, I found out the article can be read in the WP archives for payment. And I wonder if Irvine has the WP consent to publish this story on line. Therefor, a new link....

Thanks again for pointing it out Martin! My bad!

 

Stevin, ive seen pictures of several paintings Hitler did, mostly they were scenes of buildings, a few trees or people. I am not an artist but think his paintings were as good as any other artist. The School in Vienna--they said that Hitlers art--lacked life and color.

 

From what I have read and seen, Hitler was not very good at details such as portraits or people in general. He was good at architecture sketches. The people in those were blurred but it did look good with the style he was using so I never understood what the experts were talking about. As a layman, I would have to agree, they look like good sidewalk sketches.

 

I've heard that he wasn't especially good at painting. He couldn't paint people and therefore there's a big lack of figures in his paintings.

regards

 

The pics they show in the article were allright I guess. A bit like the ones you can buy on the street in Paris.

 

I think they´re rather ok but then again he never made it to the Vienna Academy ! And to think he lived a bum´s life for quite a long time...

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Hitler's Report Card From Linz Realschule.
(Graded 1 for "excellent" to 5 for "inadequate")
1901-02 1902-03 1903-04
Religion 2 2 2
German 4 4 4
French 5 5 5
Geography 3 2 2
History x x 3
Mathematics 3 3 3
Nat. History 2 2 x
Physics x x 3
Geometrical Drawing 1 2 2
Freehand Drawing 4 4 4
Handwriting 1 1 x
Gymnastics 2 2 2

History not so good? But religion very good??

http://members.tripod.com/~Propagander2/

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" Last year Sotheby's in London made a very hailed exhibition of late Winston Churchill's paintings... " from a site.

What?! Are they all artists?? What next? Did Stalin and Mussolini make paintings as well?

 

This is interesting--to have his report card scores here. It looks to me like he was an average student but probably got bored more than some students--therefore losing interest in studies and doing poorer. I wish Gary could see this posting. It was very interesting.

 

I saw a few of his paintings, one that does spring to mind was one of his hometown of Linz-and another one of Vienna, or Prague.
They were quite good-and I really can't see why he was rejected-I suppose though-I'm not an art critic, so....

 

He was a VERY GOOD painter! But do you know why wasn't he accepted in Vienna's Art Academy? Because the Führer, as I do had very special preferences for art; He hated everything painted after 1900. He loved the Classical and Romantic style, the impressionism. But how were the teachers in Vienna going to accept a student who paints things in a 100-year-old style when you have others who are doing artistic revolutions: cubism, modernism, expresionism...

Watch their paintings here:

http://nazism.chaosmagic.com/paintings/main.html

 

I have viewed photos of some of his artwork and he was better than the oft-used adjective "mediocre."

 

I agree. I always thought he was bad, but I saw some of his piantings and I must admit they were actually well painted, nothing spectacular, but nice to look at. It's actually puzzling to realize that someone who the patience to make such painting was such a monster and lacked patience to say the least when dealing with human beings.

 

Before Klara’s death in 1909 Hitler had already asked the Academy’s president, Professor Sigmund Allemand why he was not eligible to enter, and he was informed that his drawings: "Showed an unfitness for painting, and that your ability obviously lay in the field of architecture." (Mein Kampf)

Sigmund Allemand was Jewish, and years later Hitler would blame his "artistic" misfortune on not being able to enter the academy on an obvious "Jewish conspiracy." (Hitler’s Table-Talk, 1941)

Two days of examinations were required, with candidates choosing from groups of themes such as "Expulsion from Paradise," "The Hunt," "Spring," "Death," "Joy," "Music," "Episode from the Deluge," and "Dance." Hitler's surviving examination drawings include Nos. 44-46.

In the classification list for the entrants, officials at the Academy wrote the following entry after Hitler's name (this still exists in Vienna):

"(Born in) Braunau-on-the-Inn, upper Austria, April 20, 1889, German, Catholic.
Father civil servant.
4 classes in Realschule.
Few heads (drawn).
Test drawing unsatisfactory.

Hitler was not alone since a total of 87 other candidates failed that examination, 52 of whom had their records also marked "test drawing unsatisfactory". This was of course his first exam, in Oct. 1907. When he was frustrated this time on the grounds that his "art" exhibited more architectural skill than artistic his failing to pursue architecture was his own fault, and no-one else. Not a "Jew conspiracy" as he later claimed in Mein Kampf. He had not "dropped out of school" but had refused to take his final graduation testing (knowing the areas where he was weakest were those which would be tested), since passing it would have required "summer school". So even though he always admitted architecture was his great love, his lack of a secondary school diploma effectively barred any pursuance of architectural studies at the technical institute
.
And as pointed out by "Kai-Petri" previously, Hitler's final secondary school report card (when he dropped out of the educational system) shows him to be less than "outstanding" in any field other than Gymnastics, where he earned his only 1, or "excellent" rank. These were rankings from one to five, with ONE being the best, and FIVE being the worst. I find it interesting that the "genius" managed one "A", one "B", two "C's", five "D's", and three "F's". (he had quit French and switched to Shorthand)

So what we have here is a student whose moral conduct is questionable, his understanding of History, Geography, German (I would assume grammar), Shorthand, Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics are all sub par. He can draw, and he can jump and run.

Moral Conduct.....….3, unsatisfactory
Diligence..............…... 4, inadequate
Religious Instruction….4, inadequate
German.………….…5, unacceptable
Geography........….......4, inadequate
History................….....4, inadequate
Shorthand....…….….5, unacceptable
Mathematics..………5, unacceptable
Chemistry..............…..4, inadequate
Freehand drawing.....…….....2, good
Physics.........……....3, unsatisfactory
Gymnastics.........……......1,excellent


Most of the others who failed their entry exams in Vienna received no comment at all, so he obviously showed a "skill", just not the artistic one required for the Fine Arts Academy. Of the total of 115 candidates, only 28 were accepted for first year studies. Academy standards were high and selection criteria were vigorous. At that time failure was neither uncommon nor proof of inability. Acceptance by the Academy, however, virtually guaranteed recognition by the rather closed circle of artists in Austria and made critical and commercial success easier. Artistic careers outside Academy circles also were possible, but considerably more difficult and unusual. After his unsuccessful bid for admission, Hitler briefly took art lessons from a Viennese sculptor and made a second attempt to enter the Academy the following year. He failed yet again.

He might have been a "hot ticket" in Linz, but like many young men, when he hit the big city he was only slightly above average in art itself. It is too bad that he had "blown off" his final exams, never got his diploma, and wasn't nearly the "hit" he assumed he would be in the "art world". He might have truly been a decent architect, or at least architectural graphic artist.

The review board didn't let just every "wanna be" into their school. The guy who delivered the "bad news" was a Jew, but he was only speaking for the board which I believe was mostly Christian.

In his "starving artist" years in Vienna he used the Mannerheim Men's Home for three years which was considered the most "luxurious" halfway house in Austria (it can be compared with many of the older YMCA's in many of the larger US and Canadian cities today).

Each occupant had his own small private room. By living in hostels originally, as well as the Mannerheim for the last few years, and using soup-kitchens he was able to spend his "pension" money on things other than living necessities, like opera, painting supplies, clothes, and books of fiction by Karl May. But he was never a "day laborer, a draftsman, nor a construction worker", he was quite simply a "loafer". (The Unknown Hitler: His Private Life & Fortune. Stoddart Publishing Company, Toronto, Ontario, 1989)

Young Adolf Hitler, as one of the two surviving children of a group of five siblings was eligible for, and collected his civil service, "surviving children" pension until he moved to Munich since he could make more money there, and he was on the border-line of being asked to leave the Mannerheim Men's Home as his income was becoming too high. This was also the year his orphan’s pension would expire (age 24). "Surviving children of civil service workers in Alois’ Hitler’s pay level would also get 240 tax-free kronen per year, with this provisio; it would continue, ‘Until their 24th birthday or until becoming self-supporting, whichever shall be the earlier. (Toland, Adolf Hitler, Volume I)

The orphan’s pension is of little consequence however when one remembers that when his wealthy (hunchbacked) aunt Johanna, Klara's sister expected her time on earth wasn’t going to last, she withdrew a substantial amount of money from her savings and forwarded it to Hitler. The amount remains a mystery, just as the amount he received when his mother died. When Johanna’s gift arrived in 1911, Hitler made a trip to Linz where he requested and was allowed to transfer his share of the pension to his sister Paula whom his widowed half sister Angela Raubal was supporting.


His income in Vienna had put him on the cusp of being asked to leave the Mannerheim anyway by 1913, and was due to his "outside income" made from three sources; 1) making custom sized paintings for frame makers to put in their frames for sale, like the nothing "art" in a frame a Wal-Mart where you are buying the frame and not the art. 2) Selling his own water-color work in a gallery owned by one of his good friends, a Jew. 3) doing the painting on the inside of business windows to advertise sales and specials. Consequently he move to Munich just as he turned 24.

When Hitler moved to Munich in 1913, he figured out the "market" and he soon began making over 100 marks a month painting on the street. Since he had few material aspirations (he admitted to an acquaintance years later that one Mark a day was enough for lunch and supper and he could live "very well" on 80 marks a month) he began to enjoy a very comfortable life style.

One must consider that a bank clerk of his age made about 70 marks a month while many metal workers, with families to provide for, made less than 100 marks a month, his success as a street artist was undeniable. That Hitler would peddle his paintings on Leopold Strasse is noteworthy, it was a shrewd marketing ploy, Munich's own Academy of Art rests right off Leopold Strasse, and there can be little doubt that some "customers" assumed that Hitler was a struggling art student and/or might become famous some day.

"Hitler knew and admitted to friends that his work was not masterful because he did not have the proper training. Although many of his later pictures are pleasant to look at and are the type the average person appreciates, they are not what the avant-garde or experts consider "art" (not enough "depth," they say)."

From:

6: The Artist

His surviving works show a certain "skill", he never completely mastered perspective however, even Hitler knew that his real talent lay in architectural renderings and many of his buildings were executed with "genuine dexterity." (6: The Artist)

There are a number of Hitler’s works surviving, but one must consider many more were simply discarded when taken out of the frames, or even destroyed by their owners post-war when owning one might NOT be understood by the occupying forces with "grace".

See:

Snyder's Treasures -- ORIGINAL Adolf Hitler Artworks

Some of the non-architectural works from 1908 seem to lean toward "impressionism", but he wasn’t very good at it. But many of his still life and architectural renderings show skill if not "art" in the sense of the masters in any field.

 

I wouldn't call Hitler's paintings great art but a lot better than this garbage



Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer

 

That is not art, it is a biology display.

 

Yes, Hitler was very much into the Classical/Greek/Romanesque style paintings. He didn't like the 'Modern' style...the 'whacky' stuff...thus when he took power he outlawed it (and the same sorts of music) and only allowed non-jewish Classical Music and Art.

I wonder if he was at all bitter about being rejected from Art School...