In my researches, I was stumped a few times searching for the images of a few artists. Some still elude me. Did nail this one however. Herbert Knotel was the son of an illustrious father, Richard, who is widely acknowledged as the father of modern uniformology. Herbert was no artistic soluch himself. His work matching, if not surpassing that of his father.
He did a tour as an infantry officer in WWI, was wounded at Tannenberg and went home to start work again. In the late 30's however, he joined the National Socialists and that is where the trouble began. During the war, he and a traveling troup led by Adm Lorer set about evaluating and stealing art from other people's collections.
When the war was over, he went home to Berlin to find his house and collection destroyed by allied bombs and shells. Time to start over. Why I am here is to ask that someone load this image onto Wikipedia. If you go to Knotel on Wiki, there is only a German article, and you can only edit in German and I do not speak German. This is the only known image Herbert Knotel.
Would surely appreciate it.
OK guys, let's not fall all over ourselves here. What was the original purpose of war in the first place? Organized theft. I suppose the pillaging of art and the building of museums in which to display it simply shows the advancement of "civilization" and the refinement of it's taste. What are you gonna do, ship back Cleopatra's Needle?
I think that my post may have tripped the wrong wire here. My interest here is getting Knotel's image up on Wiki. I am interested in 1st Empire art and artists, not in making judgement calls about art thefts throughout history.
Knotel has been notoriously slippery when it comes to his images. As I said, this is the only image I have found in three years of searching. For a man who went through a de-Nazification court at the end of the war, lived in Berlin, was one of the premier uniformologists of his time and has only one photograph that exists of him says something.
Spells something like Thomas Pynchon.
Here in Illinois we have Gen. Santa-Anna's (of the Alamo fame) leg at the Illinois State Military Museum .
The French should definitely return the British Museum.
How about discussing the Louvre - a monument to the thievry of France! When is the world going to demand France return the Mona Lisa to Italy, the Spanish and Dutch art to Spain and Holland, along with all the other looted treasures from around the world?