Hitler’s Failed Art Portfolio Goes to Auction

One of drawings Hitler submitted as part of his portfolio to the Vienna Academy of Art (via Telegraph.co.uk) (click to enlarge)

We’ve all heard about Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler’s stint as a failed artist but now we get to judge for ourselves as the portfolio he submitted to the Vienna Academy of Art is going to auction.

Richard Westwood-Brookes, who is selling the archive of drawings (most dating form 1908), said:

We know Hitler was twice turned down by the Vienna Academy of Art. The second time in 1908 he wasn’t even invited to take the exam. These works make up a collection that he would have submitted.

My verdict: a meh artist. Who knew evil could be so banal?

One fact I learned via the Telegraph’s excellent annotated slideshow:

Hitler moved to Vienna as a young man in 1905 and lived a bohemian life, making small amounts of money by selling pictures he copied from postcards. At one point he ended up in a hostel for the homeless and later he claimed it was in Vienna where the fires of his anti-Semitism were ignited.

Hitler a bohemian? Who knew.

Watch the whole slideshow here.