Was Adolf Hitler Really a Bad Artist?

[Big Orange]

A lot of people have been saying what a "mediocre" watercolour painter Hitler was, merely on the grounds on that he flunked in his entry into an exclusive Art University in Vienna and because of this he slid into abject poverty etc.

Not making an excuse or defending Hitler for what he did later on his career, but do any of you think he was a bad artists as such?

[philipp0408]

No he wasnt a bad painter, but there were alot who performed better, for me. Iam sure, would he had a special confession, his pantings would be full of widsom, graceefullness, revolutionary, magic, soul and life. The critics have to do with making Hitler ridiculous, thats a normal behavour of all criticsin all time. In The "Eternal Jew" Picassos paintings were painted in a feverattack, now they are a work of brilliany. It always lies in the eye of the beholder...

But Hitler as a painter wasnt that bad as he is portraied.

[Chuck_jm]

I totally agree with you philipp0408, personally i like a lot Hitler´s paintings...some are better than others
but i can´t understand why his paintings were bashed as they were or still are.

Chuck/

[Max Williams]

I totally agree with you philipp0408, personally i like a lot Hitler´s paintings...some are better than others
but i can´t understand why his paintings were bashed as they were or still are.

Chuck/

Hitler's painting abilities were rather limited. Although good at buildings and other structures, his paintings of people were not so polished. He failed the entrance exam for art school because his area of competence was not diverse enough. On examination of some of his work, one can see that he failed to obtain correct proportions of human figures against a building background and this was one reason cited for his exam failure. His abilities were better than average, but not sufficiently good to warrant further development. Anti-Hitler propaganda is generally to blame for the description of his work as 'rubbish'.
Max.

[Snautzer]

correct proportions of human figures against a building background and this was one reason cited for his exam failure

They wouldnt have taken picasso and all other contemparary's wouldnt they?

[Beppo Schmidt]

Hitler's watercolors looked pretty decent, better than anything I ever did.

[wael]

Where can i see Hitler's paintings?

[Tom Nutter]

Big Orange, you might want to look at HITLER AND THE POWER OF AESTHETICS, by Frederick Spotts, published in 2003 by The Overlook Press. Spotts deals generally with the subject of Hitler and the arts, including of course his career as an artist.

In 1907 at age 18 AH went to Vienna to take the entrance examination for the Academy of Fine Arts. There were 113 candidates for this examination; about one third of them (not including AH) failed the first cut, which was a review of a sample of the artist's work. Hitler passed, and he was admitted to the examination. Hitler prepared himself by working in the studio of a local sculptor, Rudolf Panholzer. The examination was given on 1 and 2 October, with three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening each day. During the examination each candidate was required to produce a number of freehand sketches from a list of specified subjects, in this instance "the hunt", "autumn", "joy", "the good Samaritan" and "night". Hitler failed because his work did not include enough human figures. Only 28 (25% roughly) of the candidates passed the examination. Hitler tried again the next year, but was not allowed to sit for the examination because his submission was found unsatisfactory. The two rejections were crushing blows for AH; he never tried to sit for the examination again. If one believes in the "great man" theory of history, one wonders how different the world might now be if AH had passed that examination. For example, putting things in the same context, how many Einsteins, Picassos, Orville Wrights, etc. died in World War II? An analogy might be the burning of the Library at Alexandria multiplied by a number with lots of zeroes behind it.

Spotts' book contains a number of Hitler's sketches and even some reproductions of some of the Fuehrer's watercolors. For obvious reasons there have only been two exhibitions of Hitler's work since the war, although there are quite a number of his works still extant.

There is a photograph of Hitler at the beginning of Spotts' book that is full of pathos. It shows Hitler seated before a very large model of Linz, which was to be the cultural center of Europe in the postwar world (wherein Germany was victorious). The model is very similar to the model depicting the new Germania that Speer provided Hitler for his review. The photograph was taken in the Fuehrerbunker on 13 February 1945. Hitler spent hour upon hour studying the model for the rest of his life.

Regards.

Tom

[Max]

I have never seen an actual piece by Hitler but the thing that struck me about his work in reproduction, was that while reasonably competent technically , his use of colour was deadening to say the least. They have a pale "icing sugar" feel about them.The subject matter is never very exciting - I never feel that I want to visit the site of his landscapes and townscapes.

If you have not already, try to see the flim "Max"
It is a fictional account of Hitler's transition from artist to politician.
It explains some of the possible reasons why his work was never going to be popular.
http://www.popmatters.com/film/reviews/m/max.shtml

[Big Orange]

I've seen some of Hitler's paintings and he seems to be a competent, even talented artist in many ways and much of his work is seemingly superior to much of the modern crap churned out for the Turner Prize. However there seems to be something wrong with his paintings on a fundamental level, despite them being technically good for the most part. I can't put my finger on it, but it's there and his art work is fairly kitsch to some extent.

I think Hitler was not very good in depicting humans since he was perhaps some kind of sociopath who lacked empathy for other people. He was the kind of guy who viewed most Germans and Austrians as expendable drones to be chewed up on the battlefield and many Jews, Slavs and other foreigners as a nebulous mass that should be either enslaved or exterminated.

I'm not surprised that Hitler could never sketch out any real humanity in his paintings and he depicted people as omninous blobs...

[hhh]

He has some good paintingsbut not that good to make him a top artist.But he isn't bad painter as anti-hitlerite propaganda said.

[wael]

I found a site with some of Hitler's paintings

http://www.oskarschindler.com/Albums6/album.htm

[Walter Wulfsen]

Try this link to see more of Adolf Hitler's art.

http://www.hitler.org/art/

I think the detail and color in this painting of flowers and butterflies by Adolf Hitler are exquisite.



Also try the main link at the bottom of the page for a great impartial site on Hitler, called the Hitler Historical Museum. http://www.hitler.org/



Image Source: Hitler Historical Museum http://www.hitler.org/

[Bankers]

Almost all agree that Hitler was very good on buildings, but he could not draw faces and when it came to putting people in front of the buildings he could not place the features in the proper proportions. I am sure he would try to do this, but as an artist he was more an "architect of monoliths" than a true artist. He liked large buildings with huge pillars which he felt would stand for a thousand years and represent "Greater Germania". Years ago I went with an antique dealer to meet with Albert Speer and show him some drawings which Speer had done and which had the initials "AH" on them. The antique dealer wanted to verify that Hitler had indeed approved the drawings (they were of buildings). Speer said they were, indeed, approved by Hitler and they were to be part of the "New Munich" once the war was over. Munich was to be enlarged to three times its size with all new architecture and was to become the capital of culture for the Reich---those sketches of buildings were to be the beginning. Speer said that Hitler had a set of calipers but did not know how to use them---he would make rough sketches and then the people with OT would prepare final drawings for Hitler's approval. From memory: Speer offered us tea and butter cookies which he said the British gave him all the time, he loved the butter cookies he said; he said the Americans gave him lots of coffee and no cookies and the Russians whatever they felt like giving him. He said he always loved it when the British took over because he loved those butter cookies. Martin

[Mimi]

hitler's paintings can be seen on this page http://schikelgruber.net/watercolours.html
an appreciation of his works can be found on this one http://schikelgruber.net/artistic.html
you can also find a comment about his artistic drive on this page http://schikelgruber.net/drive.html
and a full description of the rape of Europe's Art by the Nazis during the war on this page http://schikelgruber.net/rapebis.html
Good reading and have fun ! I particularly advise reading the last one because the plunder of Europe'a Art is equivalent to an art holocaust !!Thousands of pieces of art were lost for ever..