Franz Triebsch, Bildnis des Führers

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Description

Franz Triebsch, ‘Bildnis des Führers’, 1941 (‘Portrait of the Leader’).
Biography: Franz Triebsch

Extremely well-executed original oleograph of Adolf Hitler;
done by Franz Triebsch, one of Hitler’s Court Painters.
This large oleograph, also known as a chromolithograph or Ölfarbendrück, can only be distinguished from an original painting by using a microscope. Unlike an ordinary poster, an oleograph is not a simple reproduction of the original but an adapted reproduction that aims to look like an original painting. The offset process is done with oils. By means of steal stamps a realistic relief is created in the paper and the original brushstrokes are imitated. Here also the canvas structure is partially copied. A thick layer of varnish protects the image and at the same time strengthens the impression of an original painting. The paper on which this oleograph is created is stretched over a (inner) wooden frame. The original image is quite likely enriched with some hand-made brush strokes that were planned in advance under supervision of Franz Triebsch in order to increase the realistic effect. The (outer) frame, measuring 98 cm x 77 cm, is also original from 1941. With the naked eye one sees a painting. Only a microscope (min. 15x) reveals that it is actually an oleograph.

This oleograph of Adolf Hitler is made after Triebsch painting which hung in the Great German Art Exhibition in 1941, room 14 (see below). It hung in an official building of the Wehrmacht in Northern Germany until 1945. Since the war it has been privately owned.
Two paintings of Franz Triebsch, one of them depicting Hitler, are still in the possession of the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington, D.C. We have not seen any other surviving painting from Triebsch depicting Hitler; it is very likely they have all been destroyed. Also from these oleographs, with their fragile structure of stretched paper, we have not seen any in the last decades.

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