very nice pic of Lothar's Dr1 - later he would have the top wing painted yellow as well

incredible workkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

Wonderful work.

As itifonhom and I have discussed on another forum, where I told him I would discuss it elsewhere, I want to state that regarding the caption to his most excellent rendering in this thread, his art does not depict Lothar von Richthofen's 30th victory, as claimed. Lothar was flying a Fokker DVII that day, not a Fokker Dr.I, as shown. In fact, LvR never shot down any Sopwith Camels while flying a Dr.I.

Now, I know the point of this forum is art, so please understand this post is not an attack on itifonhom, his rendering, or art in general. Instead of critiquing his artwork, as this thread requested, I am critiquing his caption, because itifonhom has attached historical representation to this art—i.e., “…this report inspired me to create this image, LvR getting his 30th victory.” I.e., “this image is what it looked like.” In our discussion elsewhere ([link]), itifonhom has been made aware and now understands his work does not historically depict the event his caption claims it does. He is very passionate about his art and art in general--I respect him for that--but said he "really doesn't care much" about historical accuracy—despite including accurate dates, times, and locations in his description—and thus refuses to change his caption, which he said he has posted on several other sites. As itifonhom is about art, I am very passionate about history and historical accuracy—especially when the latter is confirmed beyond doubt—and the old adage that if something is worth doing , it is worth doing right. This is where he and I have reached a civil impasse and agreed to disagree--about the caption, mind you, not the art. As I said, that looks great! It doesn’t depict Lothar von Richthofen’s 30th victory historically, but the visual rendering is fantastic! As I told him, it gives me a good and believable sense of altitude. I look forward to his future work.

To be clear and summarize, this post is neither about itifonhom personally, nor his art, visually. They need not be defended because neither is in question. What is in question is historical representation and how too much is “learned” this way via the internet, and how this “information” then becomes the headwaters of myth. As the events of LvR’s 30th victory compelled itifonhom to create an historical image that turned out to be erroneous—logic dictates that depicting the wrong airplane was an honest mistake, because why would someone intentionally use the wrong one? Besides, in another forum, he admitted he “got it wrong”—and since he will not change its caption after learning of this error, the responsibility to make sure others do not incorrectly use this image to “learn” the details of LvR’s 30th victory has compelled me to post here.

Over time I’ve gotten a sense that many artists consider the art itself to be more important than that which it represents. Thus, I suspect posting this here may garner disinterest in the subject of historical representation—fair enough, since this *is* an art site, after all—and perhaps even be misunderstood as an attack on artistic integrity in a brush-on-paper sense. Please understand this is not so and has never been my intent. My intent is to lead the horses to the clean water. That is all I can do. Now, that has been done.