A visionary work by August Natterer, depicting a surreal, floating shepherd figure rendered in pencil and watercolour.

August Natterer, a German artist who spent much of his adult life in psychiatric care, produced a body of work that documents his internal visions. Der Wunderhirthe, or The Miraculous Shepherd, is a representative example of his output. The composition features a central figure, the shepherd, standing upon a reclining, elongated form that defies conventional anatomy. The shepherd holds a staff and is accompanied by a small animal, possibly a dog, while the entire scene floats against a wash of blue pigment.

Natterer described his visions as appearing before him in rapid succession, often requiring him to draw them immediately to capture their fleeting nature. His work is characterised by a precise, almost clinical line quality, which contrasts with the dreamlike, surreal subject matter. The figures are rendered with a sense of detachment, suggesting a narrative logic that is personal to the artist. The use of colour is restrained, with the blue background providing a sense of space that isolates the subjects from any earthly context.

This piece offers a glimpse into the creative process of an artist working outside the traditional art historical canon. Natterer's drawings were later collected by Hans Prinzhorn, whose study of the art of the mentally ill brought these works to the attention of the wider art world. The image functions as a visual record of a specific hallucination, translated into a medium that allows for both detail and atmosphere. The lack of perspective and the unusual proportions of the figures are typical of Natterer's approach, where the priority is the accurate depiction of his internal experience rather than the observation of the physical world. This print captures the delicate balance between the graphic clarity of his line work and the ethereal quality of his watercolour application.