Der Wunderhirthe 1919

Here we have August Natterer’s ‘Der Wunderhirthe’, or ‘The Miraculous Shepherd’, which seems to have emerged from the deep blue of his imagination. Look at the drawing; how the shepherd, his dog, and the supporting limbs emerge out of a blue dreamscape! It feels like I’m glimpsing a world where the body can be reconfigured according to a different kind of logic. I can almost feel Natterer’s hand moving across the surface, mapping out a landscape of the mind. I wonder what Natterer was thinking as he brought this vision into being, line by line? The green hand gently cradling the fish head feels particularly striking, like a gesture of care or blessing. There’s an uncanny quality to the image. The shepherd, with his staff and hat, seems calm amidst the strangeness. Natterer’s work reminds me of other visionary artists. It is as if they’re all tuning into a frequency that is beyond the everyday. They speak to me of the power of art to transform and expand our understanding of what it means to be human.