August Natterer, also known under the pseudonym Neter, was a German artist who was active during the early 20th century. Natterer is best known for being an artist with schizophrenia, a condition that would impact both his life and his artwork.

Natterer began his adulthood as a married, successful electrician, but would soon succumb to delusions, a hallmark symptom of schizophrenia. On April 1st, 1907, Natterer experienced a notable hallucination of the Last Judgment, where he claims “10,000” images flashed before his eyes during a half-hour timeframe. He describes the hallucination as the following: “I saw a white spot in the clouds absolutely close – all the clouds paused – then the white spot departed and stood all the time like a board in the sky. On the same board or the screen or stage now images as quick as a flash followed each other, about 10,000 in half an hour…”

After this event, Natterer would attempt suicide, which resulted in him being committed to a string of mental asylums for the remaining years of his life. It was during the 26 years spent in these asylums where Natterer produced drawings centered around the ideas and images seen in his vision.

One of these intense pieces was “My Eyes at the Moment of the Apparitions”, a simple, clean painting of a pair of eyes made between 1911 and 1913. The painting depicts the rapid, striking imagery that Natterer was exposed to during his 1907 hallucination.

The eyes are drawn neatly and symmetrical; Natterer’s technicality when it came to this piece may have been due to his background as an electrician, where attention to detail would have been critical. Yet, despite the precision of the eyes themselves, the abnormal colours stand out, giving the painting an added layer of depth. When considering the context, the painting becomes haunting. One can begin to understand how Natterer must have felt during his hallucination, how powerful the images in his mind must have felt to him. With that, “My Eyes at the Moment of the Appartitions” becomes somewhat tragic, a brief glimpse into what must have been a terrifying experience for Natterer. How he managed to convey these emotions with such a simple piece points to his talent as an artist, even though he had no formal education.

In 1933, Natterer died of heart failure in a German institution. His work lives on as a glance into the mind of someone experiencing schizophrenia and its devastating symptoms, a beautiful yet tragic portfolio of a man and his mind.

https://www.wikiart.org/en/august-natterer/my-eyes-in-the-time-of-apparition-1913

Image Credit: My Eyes in the Time of Apparition by August Natterer