Rudolf Nehmer (1912-1983), Blessed Are The Pure In Heart, 1948

Rudolf Nehmer (1912 Bobersberg - 1983 Dresden), Blessed are the pure in heart, 1948. Woodcut on yellowish wove paper, 17.8 cm x 15.4 cm (image), 35 cm x 25 cm (sheet size), signed “Rud.[olf] Nehmer” in pencil lower right and inscribed “Matth. 5,8” lower left.

- The wide sheet margin with slight traces of creasing, the image in excellent, colorful condition.

- The Vision of the Child's Eyes -

This woodcut is part of Nehmer's best-known series, his pictorial interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount (Matth. 5:1-7:29), created shortly after the end of World War II. The print illustrates the beatitude: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God (Mt 5:8).

Two boys and a girl sit in the enclosed garden of childlike innocence, looking up from the dark background. The Lamb of God, lying as a toy in the grass in front of them, illustrates that they are looking at the Savior; the boy on the left holds his hand to his mouth in amazement, while the girl next to him has folded her hands naturally in prayer.

About the artist

Rudolf Nehmer studied from 1932 to 1934 in Dresden at the private art academy founded by Ernst Oskar Simonson-Castelli under Woldemar Winkler and, after a brief interlude at the art academy, was a student in Willy Kriegel's studio until 1936. After his first one-man show in 1935 at the Kühl Art Exhibition in Dresden, which was progressive until the Nazi era, Nehmer was represented at the major German art exhibitions in the following years. In 1938 he stayed in Worpswede. From 1941 he was a soldier on the Western Front and in Denmark, returning to Dresden from British captivity in 1945. After the war, he had his first solo exhibition in 1945. Nehmer was a co-founder of the artists' association 'Das Ufer - Gruppe 1947' and in 1951 a founding member of the artists' cooperative 'Kunst und Zeit'. He had numerous solo and group exhibitions in the GDR, culminating in a retrospective at the Galerie Neuer Meister on the occasion of his 60th birthday.