It was just last year when a Hitler creation – the Fuehrer’s watercolor take on the Old Town Hall of Munich – was auctioned off and was sold for a whopping £103,000. But last Thursday, March 26, saw the sale of another Hitler creation — this time a flower painting made by the Fuehrer while he was still in his mid-twenties and was struggling to make a living as an artist. This seemingly innocent Hitler creation – a still life of flowers in a pitcher – had a price estimate of $30,000.
Like the Fuehrer’s Old Town Hall of Munich painting, the recent Hitler creation that went down the hammer bore the Nazi Germany dictator’s signature.
Described by art critic Alastair Smart as a “rarity” and “an iffy watercolor of a pitcher of azalias”, he says that the painting’s worth is not on its artistry or whatsoever but the man and the hands who painted it — the same hands that much later on would mass murder Jews and other minorities and bring down the whole globe to World War Two.
The Hitler creation was sold by memorabilia collector Nate D. Saunders though its previous owner remains unidentified.
It can be remembered that Hitler started painting in 1908, the same time that he moved to Vienna. However, he was rejected by the prestigious Vienna Academy of Art twice. Beyond the rejections though, Hitler found a supporter in Samuel Morgenstern who, ironically, was a Jewish art dealer. Morgenstern was responsible for selling a number of Hitler’s artworks to wealthy Jewish clients living in Vienna.
When 1913 rolled in, Hitler gave up his painter dreams and eventually moved to Munich.
Later on, the Nazis seized the gallery of Morgenstern and shipped the art dealer off to Lodz Ghetto. He eventually died there in 1943. This particular Hitler creation of flowers bears Morgenstern’s stamp on its back.
The Hitler creation lot – the still life painting of flowers by the German dictator – appears to have been withdrawn from the Nate D. Saunders Auction website. It doesn’t have any bids on it.