Hitler’s pictures on sale
MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) – Three watercolor paintings by Adolf Hitler will go under the hammer at an auction to be held in Bavaria on September 5.
Three landscapes by the Nazi dictator are to go on sale at a Weidler auction with a starting price of 3,000-3,500 euros each, the Nuernberger Nachrichten said. Before going into politics, Hitler twice unsuccessfully attempted to enter the Vienna arts academy. Hitler mostly painted postcards and advertisements, but also managed to sell a few of his watercolors. In 2006, 21 pictures authored by Hitler were found in Belgium. In April 2006, two of his watercolors were sold to an unknown buyer for 32,000 euros.
LONDON (The Independent) As a German auction house prepares to sell off three of Adolf Hitler’s watercolours, new evidence has emerged suggesting that the Nazi leader remained convinced he was an artistic genius and was often irritatingly obsessed by art despite his failure as a painter.
The three paintings are kitsch displays of cottages, mills and churches nestling in rural landscapes, which were painted in 1910 and 1911 in Vienna. At the time Hitler was struggling to begin a career as an artist and developing many of his anti-Semitic theories.
SPIEGEL (The German art historian Birgit Schwarz, an expert on Hitler’s relationship with art)
After the humiliation of being rejected by the academy, he developed an aversion to all professors, and to all academic study. On the whole, he saw himself as a creative genius. You mustn’t forget that the concept we have today of a genius is so much more harmless than it was back then.We define a genius on the basis of his talent. At the time, talent was not the main focus. A genius had to have a strong personality. He was a larger-than-life talent who was permitted to do anything, including evil things. The genius has outstanding ideas, and they must be implemented, even if they are completely amoral. Hitler admired the work of dour philosophers like Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche. One important aspect is often overlooked, namely that the concept of genius had long been colored with racism. Houston Stewart Chamberlain, a Briton by birth who had married into the family of Richard Wagner, was a significant figure. He published his views in a book, which became a bestseller. Chamberlain, who promoted the great Aryan personality, was a key figure for Hitler.
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