Der Grafiker und Marinemaler Oskar Dolhart: ein biografischer Versuch

Abstract

In the mid 1930s, the graphic artist Oskar Dolhart - whose name does not appear in any of the major reference works - attracted attention as a naval painter. He belonged to a group of artists who focused on Germany's massively enlarged naval fleet and did much to spread the propaganda image of warships and wartime events. Dolhart claimed to have been a pupil of Robert Schmidt-Hamburg - a statement left unverified by the Schmidt estate. During the war, Oskar Dolhart produced a series of cover illustrations for the new front magazine Die Seeflieger der deutschen Luftwaffe, and was in charge of its graphics for two and a half years. After he left the magazine for reasons unknown, he served as a soldier until the end of the war. After 1945, as far as is known, he stopped painting wartime subjects. Dolhart lived in Holzminden and resumed his activities as a commercial graphic artist. He retained his links with the water, however, by painting watercolours of the River Weser and the Weserbergland.