The Saint of the Inner Light (Die Heilige vom inneren Licht)

The title of this print by Paul Klee signals the work’s spiritual theme, while the figure’s high brow and sloping shoulders recall depictions of saints by Northern Renaissance artists. Klee portrays his saint with eyes closed, fixed on inner rather than external realities.

In the 1930s the Nazis declared Klee “degenerate,” and his work was included in their infamous 1937 Degenerate Art exhibition, which promised audiences “Nature as seen by sick minds.” Klee was interested in the art of children and the mentally ill, believing their creations were free and unmediated. To underscore that his art was “insane childish scrawling,” the Nazis juxtaposed a photograph of The Saint of Inner Life with the work of a mental patient in the Degenerate Art exhibition guide.