NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PHOTOGRAPHS OF HITLER AND MUSSOLINI, FOUND AMONGST THE UNPUBLISHED PAPERS OF FRANCIS BACON

For years they were believed to be lost, until recently I found them in one of the many boxes used when moving house, some very rare and unpublished photographs of Hitler and Mussolini (obviously original prints) that Francis Bacon, during one of our encounters, had forgotten to ask me to be returned and reflecting back, it was beneficial that they were not.

Noticeably, many of the photographs have in the foreground, on Hitler himself and other high-ranking Nazi officials, armbands bearing the swastika, recalling in some way a kind of formal, painterly composition albeit one with an ultra-propagandist bent! In some of the images, one unexpectedly notices very rare examples of a seemingly convivial Hitler (in drastic opposition to the popular myth); in others one can sense a diminished, sartorial superiority of the Fascists in comparison to the Nazis. As we now know, when it came to all-out warfare, things were slightly different.

I double-checked with some historian friends of mine and they assured me that these photographs have never before been seen or published.

It is a profound measure of the depths of seriousness of Francis Bacon as a painter that he was compelled to purchase these costly original prints (probably very illegally on the post-war “black market”) in order that they be properly conserved so as not to lose their power of visual provocation that would more than likely be the result of over-exposure to the public.

Foto mai viste di Hitler e Mussolini.
Erano fra le carte inedite di Francis Bacon.

Da anni le avevo perdute ma di recente in uno degli scatoloni dei miei tanti traslochi ritrovo delle rarissime foto inedite di Hitler e Mussolini(sono chiaramente scatti originali)che Francis Bacon si scordò di richiedermi indietro in uno dei nostri incontri e che io mi guardai bene dal fare.

Molte hanno in primo piano la fascetta con la svastica che a volte egli citò nei quadri,una vede un rarissimo Hitler conviviale –stato poco compatibile con il Mito- in altre si nota la schiacciante superiorità sartoriale dei fascisti rispetto ai nazisti.

Come sappiamo,a livello bellico le cose erano leggermente diverse.Ho fatto un giro di controllo con degli amici storici e mi hanno assicurato che sono foto mai viste,scatti inediti.
Dà la misura della serietà del pittore che arrivava a comprare dei costosi fotogrammi originali per documentarsi in una maniera che non fosse già logorata dallo sguardo degli altri.