Watercolours by Adolf Hitler the Great Viennese Painter

Even the most anti-nazi person should admit that Hitler yielded a little
talent,, notably in the drawing of architectural buildings like this
opposite Arch of Triumph in Munich.

However his sense of colors was weak to say the least, domineering
colors being beige or grey. If we take into consideration the fact that
Hitler attended a drawing school in Munich for some weeks only
(1906), we may estimate that, with more training and hard work,
young Adi would have been able to achieve some correct works of art
or pieces of architecture.

He might even have achieved a honest career as a painter of second
rank or a tolerable architect. The views of critics who deny Hitler any
talent is to my humble opinion biaised and tainted with rabid
anti-hitlerism, although very understandably so. Furthermore it is
worthwile noticing that, in spite of his hatred for Cubists and other
"degenerated artists", Hitler was influenced by some of them : the sky
in the painting representing a sailing boat towing a fishing raft
strangely resembles van Gogh skies.

We must also be aware that Hitler painted a lot from postcards,
sometimes copying or even painting over it. As the historian John
Toland said about him, Hitler was more an architect than an artist. It
is really a pity for the world that he did not graduate from
Oberrealschule because he would have probably made a passable
architect. It is plain obvious that his artistic talent was not great and
that he had no visionary views or a flamboyant imagination. Hitler was
no Kandinksy as clearly shows this 1924 watercolor of a postman
recently sold by an auction house in Cornwall (England) for £5,200
($9,100). Had not it been painted by Hitler, it would probably have
reached £20.

It is because he was never able to come up with totally new concepts
or methods, like many Surrealist or Abstract painters who did not
even attend Art Schools or because he was stranger to innovative
painting that Hitler resented and hated the successful painters of the
turn of the century. And it is only in so far as he was resentful that he
can be described as a failed artist. Else the term of painter of second
rank would be well enough to qualify a guy who was not an artistic
genius, nobody had any doubt about it.

Since the end of the War, the paintings below have all been
presented to the Art market for an asking price ranging from $1,000 to
$50,000 with an average price of $10,000. It is depressing to realize
that the worst drama of all times was occasioned by the artistic failure
of a braggart and a selfish autodidact whose real talent was
demagoguery and oratory. For a more complete view of Hitler's paintings, please click on Watercolours