 |
 |
|||
Description
‘Mosellandschaft bei Mesenich’ (‘Mosel-landscape near Mesenich’)
| – condition | : II |
| – size | : 38 x 31,5 cm |
| – signed | : left, under |
| – type | : oil on paperboard |
============================================ § ============================================
BIOGRAPHY: HERMANN GRADL
Hermann Gradl was represented in the Great German Art Exhibitions with 40 works, all landscapes. Goebbels bought five of his works and Adolf Hitler bought 15 of the paintings for prices of up to 25,000 Reichsmark.
Five works by Gradl were part of the art collection of Hermann Göring and destinated for the ‘Norddeutsche Gallery’. In Eva Braun’s will, drawn up on October 26, 1944, we see that she also possessed paintings from Hermann Gradl.
Hermann Gradl, ‘Mainlandschaft’. GDK 1942. Bought by Hitler for 25.000 RM (in the possession of Deutsches Historisches Museum). Size 223 x 164 cm.
Left: Hermann Gradl, postcard, ‘Ornbau-Altmühltal’, GDK 1944, room 26. Bought by Hitler for 15.000 (for the Neue Reichskanzlei in Berlin). In the possession of the Deutsches Historisches Museum. Size 125 x 97 cm.
Right: Hermann Gradl, ‘Marktheidenfeld’.
Left: Hermann Gradl, postcard, ‘Rothenfels am Main’.
Right: Hermann Gradl, postcard, ‘Sommer am Bodensee’.
Hermann Gradl, ‘Schwarzwald’, GDK 1937 room 18; depicted in the exhibition catalogue. Also depicted in ‘Hermann Gradl, -Der Schöne deutsche Süden‘, 1936.
‘Schwarzwald’ by Gradl: ‘set the direction of German Art’
The illustrated report below on the ‘Great German Art Exhibition’ appeared in the July 22, 1937, of the Berliner llustrirte Zeitung. As the title suggests, the featured works, all of which were included in the exhibition, were supposed to ‘set the direction of German art.’ Each illustration is accompanied by a caption praising it according to Nationalist Socialist aesthetic and philosophical criteria.
Hermann Gradl, ‘Sulzfeld am Main’, art print. Depicted in ‘Hermann Gradl, -Der schöne deutsche Süden’, 1936.
Hermann Gradl, ‘Homburg am Main’ (‘Homburg at the Main‘). GDK 1944 room 26. Size 125 x 96. Bought by Hitler for 15.000 Reichsmark. In the possession of the Deutsches Historisches Museum.
Left: Hermann Gradl, ‘Fränkisches Dorf’ (‘Village in Franconia‘). GDK 1942 room 17. Size 125 x 96. Bought by Hitler for 10.000 Reichsmark. In the possession of the Deutsches Historisches Museum.
Right: Hermann Gradl, ‘Bodensee‘ (‘Lake Constance’). GDK 1937 room 25. At the backsite a sticker with the text: ‘Dienstgebäude Reichskanzlei, Berchtesgaden’. In the possession of the Deutsches Historisches Museum.
Hermann Gradl, ‘Taunustal’ (‘Taunus Valley‘). GDK 1944 room 26. Size 125 x 96. Bought by Hitler for 15.000 Reichsmark. In the possession of the Deutsches Historisches Museum.
Gradl paintings for the Reich Chancellery
Hermann Gradl was commisioned by Adolf Hitler to paint six Monumental-paintings for the huge dining room of the Neuen Reichskanzlei in Berlin: ‘Hochgebirge’, ‘Bächlein’, ‘Seelandschaft’, ‘Flaches Land’, ‘Mittelgebrige’ and ‘Flusslandschaft’; these six works are depicted in ‘Die Kunst im Dritten Reich’, 1939.
In the GDK 1939 room 15, two works were displayed named: ‘Seelandschaft’ and ‘Flusslandschaft’. The two works look almost the same as the monumental works Gradl created for the Neue Reichskanzlei (‘für die speisesaal des erweiterungsbaues der Neuen Reichskanzlei in Berlin geschaffen’).
Hermann Gradl, art print, ‘Flusslandschaft’ (‘River landscape’). Monumental painting destinated for the huge dining room of the Neuen Reichskanzlei in Berlin (‘für die speisesaal des erweiterungsbaues der Neuen Reichskanzlei in Berlin geschaffen’).
Hermann Gradl, art print, ‘Seelandschaft’ (‘Lake landscape’). Monumental painting destinated for the huge dining room of the Neuen Reichskanzlei in Berlin (‘für die speisesaal des erweiterungsbaues der Neuen Reichskanzlei in Berlin geschaffen’).
Adolf Hitler visiting the Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellung 1938. Next to Hitler, Prof. Karl Kolb, director of the Haus der Deutschen Kunst, Adolf Ziegler, president of the Reichskammer of the visual arts and Heinrich Himmler. At the background ‘Meinlandschaft’ by Hermann Gradl (bought for 15.000 Reichsmark by Hitler).
Hermann Gradl, ‘Altmühlbrücke bei Kinding’ (‘Altmühl-bridge near Kinding’). Art print. Depicted in ‘Hermann Gradl, -Deutsche Landschaftsbilder’, 1951.
Hermann Gradl, ‘Mainlandschaft bei Karlstadt’. Art print. Depicted in ‘Hermann Gradl, -Deutsche Landschaftsbilder’, 1951.
Hermann Göring Collection
Hermann Görings entire art collection comprised some 4,263 paintings, sculptures and tapestries. He planned to display them in the ‘Norddeutsche Galerie’, an art gallery which should be created after the war. The Norddeutsche Gallery was to be erected as an annex to Karinhall in the big forest of the Schorfheide, near Berlin. According to the website of the German Historical Museum, 5 works by Gradl were part of the collection. Göring bought two works in 1941 directly from the artist. One painting was a gift from the City of Fürth, and the other two were given by the Gauleiters of Danzig-West Prussia and Cologne.
Hermann Gradl in his atelier in the 1930s.
Left: Hermann Gradl, photo depicted on the newsite of the Main Echo, 14 February 2014.
Right: ‘Leader of the Academy Hermann Gradl, -Class of Landscape Painting’, by Georg Vogt. Vogt also created an oil portrait of Hermann Gradl, which hung in the GDK 1942 room 26.
Hermann Gradl: Hitler’s favourite landscape painter
‘I will destroy the Bolshevik Art. You can trust my words in this Professor Gradl’ (Adolf Hitler).
Hermann Gradl (1883–1964), born in Marktheidenfeld as the sun of a lawyer, was a German painter and illustrator. In 1902 he went to the Münchner Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) where he studied Textile-design under Theodor Spiess. From 1926 onwards he taught at the Kunstgewerbeschule Nürnberg on the subject of weaving and ceramics. Like Hitler, he was not accepted at the Academy of Art. In the field of painting he was more or less an autodidact. With his first paintings he participated successfully at the exhibition of the Münchner Glaspalast in 1913/14. His success grew and a few years later he already belonged to the circle of popular new artists. With his romantic painting style his great breakthrough came when the National Socialists, who very much liked the Naturalists of the 19th century, came to power. They saw in Naturalism: ‘the typical appearance of the German Land, in its intertwining of Nature and Culture and its many different guises as Motherland of the German Nation’.
In 1934 Hermann Gradl became a member of the National Socialistic teachers’ organization (NSLB); in 1939 he was installed as Director of the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in der Stadt der Reichsparteitage Nürnberg. In 1941 he entered the NSDAP. In 1937 Adolf Hitler visited Gradl in his atelier very enthusiastic about the artist’s work. Hitler stated: ‘I will destroy the Bolshevik Art. You can trust my words in this Professor Gradl’. Later Hitler said several times at public occasions that Gradl was his favourite landscape painter, which inspired many highly positioned Nazi officers, among them Speer and Goebbels, to buy the paintings from Gradl. Hitler, who classified Gradl also as one of the 12 most important artists of the Third Reich (the Gotbegnadeten List), gave Gradl the order to paint six Monumental-paintings for the huge dining room of the Neuen Reichskanzlei in Berlin: ‘Hochgebirge’, ‘Bächlein’, ‘Seelandschaft’, ‘Flaches Land’ , ‘Mittelgebrige’ and ‘Flusslandschaft’. Gradl received for the idyllic landscapes, which hung in the dining room that was 48 metres long, 5 metres high and 10 metres wide, a sum of 120.000 Reichsmark, the equivalent of 100 Volkswagens.
In the GDK’s Gradl was represented with 40 works. Hitler bought 15 of his paintings and Joseph Goebbels 5, for prices of up to 25.000 RM. Four works by Gradl were displayed at the XXI Venice Biennale, 1938.
Five works by Gradl were part of the art collection of Hermann Göring and destinated for the ‘Norddeutsche Gallery’. In Eva Braun’s will, drawn up on October 26, 1944, we see that she also possessed paintings from Hermann Gradl.
After WWII, Gradl was during the Denazification classified as ‘Mitläufer’. In 1946 his Honorary Citizenship was reconformed by his birthtown Stadt Marktheidenfeld. In 1955, at the celebration of the 1100-year anniversary of Stadt Marktheidenfeld, an extensive Hermann Gradl exhibition was held in the former Bezirksamtgebäude, the birthhouse of Gradl.
Hermann Gradl died in 1964 in Nürnberg. He bequeathed his paintings collection to the city of Marktheidenfeld. After 1964 the Kulturzentrum Franck-Haus in Marktheidenfeld set up a Hermann Gradl-documentation centrum; since 2000 the Kulturzentrum houses a permanent exhibition about Gradl.
In 1983 at the occasion of his 100st birthday, his birthtown organized the exhibition ‘Hermann Gradl, -Marktheidenfeld seine Heimatstadt‘.