Führer’s art fails to find appreciation 100 years on

Two works of art painted by Adolf Hitler raised £1,600 under the hammer at auction.

The paintings, Der Lehrling Muster and A Coastal Scene, appeared alongside examples of fine art by Lamorna Birch, Gill Watkiss, Robert Lenkiewicz and Sir Terry Frost.

Der Lehrling Muster, which translates as The Apprentice Model or The Apprentice Sample, shows a figure operating a laundry mangle or a printing press. Hitler painted the 9.2in by 6.5in piece while struggling as an artist in Vienna in the years before the First World War.

He was repeatedly rejected by Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts while living in the city as a young man trying to make a living as a watercolour artist.

A Coastal Scene, a 5in by 7.5in work depicting a simulated gilt frame encasing a small sailing boat and a headland, was painted in 1919 after Hitler was badly injured in the trenches.

The paintings, which were estimated to sell for between £2,000 and £3,000, were sold by Barnes Thomas County Auctioneers in Penzance, Cornwall.

Experts have suggested that Hitler’s rejection from Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts in 1907 and 1908 and his failure as an artist contributed to shaping his character in later years.